Prisons Earn $878 Million Annually by Poisoning Inmates and Guards, Lawsuit Alleges

Freda Cobb alleges that she and more than 300 other people were poisoned by a Florida prison.  Cobb and 25 other plaintiffs are suing the Federal Corrections Institute in Marianna for exposing them to dangerous lead levels while prison laborers burst computers with hammers to extract gold from within.  Prisons reportedly earned $878 million each year while under contract to Dell and Hewlett Packard by exposing inmates and employees like Cobb to high levels of lead and toxic chemicals.

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WMBB News 13
12/09/08

Woman Sues Prison System

Marianna, FL ~ A former corrections officer sues the prison system, saying the employees and inmates are being poisoned to death.
  Freda Cobb, 48, says she was one of hundreds exposed to toxic chemicals at the Federal Corrections Institute in Marianna.  “My female organs had enlarged three times the size they were,” Cobb says.  “Five weeks after my first surgery, my gallbladder was practically to burst.”
Fourteen years ago, the Federal Corrections Institute in Marianna began recycling obsolete computer parts from various government facilities.
“They (inmates) would bust the monitors from hammers to retrieve the gold out of it to send back to the Dell or Hewlett Packard companies because they have contracts with them to refurbish and reuse them in the new computers,” she says.
Cobb says hers was one of seven federal prisons across the country under contract. “They made quite a bit of money like $878 million a year with all the institutions together.” While the prisons were making money, Cobb says the inmates and employees doing the work were getting sick.
“We were told it was safe, but they lied.  There’s eight pounds of lead, in one monitor.” And Cobb says they were busting thousands of monitors a day.
Cobb says she was also exposed to massive amounts of Cadmium, Barium, Beryllium, and Arsenic.  All of it spread through the facility in the form of dust.
“In the summer it was 127 degrees inside the building,” Cobb says “We would sweat and wipe our face and eyes.  It was on us and in our mouths.”
Cobb says 100 inmates would spend eight hours a day in these conditions and also got extremely sick.
“We were helping inmates on ambulances, because their heart wanting to stop or they had kidney infections.”
Cobb says 300 other employees have noticed poisoning symptoms.  The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) investigated computer recycling plants.  A sister facility in Ohio reportedly tested positive for 50% more lead than allowed by OSHA.  Cadmium levels were 450% over the limit.
Cobb is one of 26 plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit.  The case is scheduled to appear in a Tampa Federal Courtroom in 2010.   http://www.panhandl eparade.com/ index.php/ mbb/article/ woman_sues_ prison_system/ mbb7712472/

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Taxpayers pay around $50,000 per year for incarcerating each inmate, but additional profits from prison labor substantially augments the financial portfolios of investors who capitalize off imprisoning 2.3 million Americans (called legalized slavery by some).   Taxpayers believe that a large prison system is necessary to keep citizens safe, but most do not realize that two-thirds of inmates are incarcerated for non-violent offenses, and more than half of prisoners are mentally dysfunctional people who were imprisoned because mental illness is criminalized in the U.S.A. 

See more about how prison investors profit from prison labor at this link:

Is America's Prison System Legalized Slavery?
http://my.nowpublic.com/health/americas-prison-system-legalized-slavery

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Mary Neal

Website:  http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com

Author's Page:  http://www.care2.com/c2c/people/profile.html?pid=513396753

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.  ~ Matthew 25:37-40