Jack & Jill Politics

Most people think slavery in the U.S. ended with the passage of the 13th Amendment right after the Civil War. The 13th Amendment is short and sweet in its Declaration:

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”[emphasis added]

As it turns out, that simple phrase ‘except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted’ is an exception that has come to include so many people, that in many ways it can be argued slavery never really ended in the United States. I believe the abolitionists and their radical Republican representatives could not have anticipated that this non-controversial exception for convicted felons would end up putting more black men into penal servitude than had lived under chattel slavery when the Civil War began.

It seems the old adage is true, “where there’s a will, there’s a way”. There has always been a will within the U.S. economic system to exploit human resources. Slavery represents the ultimate exploitation of human resources – people are considered property to be utilized and disposed of at the will of those with legal control over them.

Almost 150 years after the Civil War, far from becoming a “freer” society, the United States leads the world in penal servitude. The rate of incarceration in the United States surpasses that of every other nation by a wide margin — and as documented conclusively by Michelle Alexander in the New Jim Crow, African-Americans have been systemically and deliberately targeted by law enforcement practices that have created a new and more pernicious racial caste system in which criminalization brands one for life as a member.

Via: Criminology

One would think given these statistics there would be a serious discussion in this country about whether we’ve gone overboard in the use of punishment and incarceration as a means of controlling people. There is a national conversation about prisons, but it’s not really about whether they are humane or effective, rather the debate is all about the BENJAMINS – the costs of corrections and law enforcement as a percentage of state budgets.

Republicans propose a solution from their all-purpose playbook – ‘Privatize It!’. Private prisons are all the rage among conservatives as part of their ‘fiscal austerity’ agenda. According to them, private companies such as Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) can do a better job than government of managing our prisons without compromising public safety and/or prisoner health. Leading the debate has been Governor Rick Scoot – Tweedledum to Scott Walker’s Tweedledee – who supported legislation that would have dramatically expanded the role of private prisons in Florida’s correctional system – a state with the sixth largest prison population in the country.

As has been true of a lot of his political agenda, Governor Scott miscalculated. It turns out a lot his erstwhile Tea Party supporters did not believe his claims regarding the fiscal benefits of privatizing state prisons, as reported by the Wall Street Journal:

After fierce debate and lobbying by the Governor and his legislative supporters, the proposal was defeated in the Florida senate this week. The rebuke of Scott and the state’s Republican leadership on this issue was motivated in part by concern over the almost 4,000 corrections officers whose jobs would be jeopardized, as well as growing evidence from other states that privatization is not the panacea many think. Contrary to the claims of proponents, private prisons are actually less safe – more incidents of assaults against guards and other prisoners and they have less experienced personnel who often cave under pressure.

Russian TV has done a more thorough job of reporting on this issue than most US media – Private Prison in Florida, Report from RTV: Ana Kasparian of The Young Turks discusses:

Rather than focusing on saving money by cutting costs on prisoners and the people who manage them, we should look for alternatives to incarceration and demand our leaders pursue public safety strategies that value PEOPLE OVER PROFITS!!

Then – black prisoners = free labor in Reconstruction South:

Now – black prisoners = free labor in the New South: