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Is America's Prison System Legalized Slavery?
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by duo | November 8, 2008 at 05:07 pm
1611 views | 46 Recommendations | 26 comments
IS SLAVERY REALLY OVER in America, or was the privilege to enslave human beings and enforce their labor simply relegated to the nation's prison system? The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America provides that no person can "be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."* Therefore, citizens can only become slaves after having "due legal process" and sentencing by the courts. Does the desire to have complete control over human beings by force and use them for profit-making enterprise explain why 1 in every 99.1 Americans is currently in prison, nearly two-thirds of them for non-violent offenses?
Congress apologized to African Americans for slavery and Jim Crow practices in 2008, but is it really over, or is slavery actually one of the fastest growing enterprises in the country, with hundreds of thousands of African Americans being "captured" from their communities in America rather than from African villages? As private industry downsizes and workers find their jobs either dissolved or transferred overseas, our prison industry continues to expand, with mandatory sentencing restrictions and three-strikes policies to ensure the continued success of the enterprise.
Slavery is a prominent part of United States history. Slavery has existed for thousands of years in many cultures, but in the United States, the institution seemed to have been perfected. Oliver Ellsworth, one of the signers of the Constitution wrote, "All good men wish the entire abolition of slavery, as soon as it can take place with safety to the public, and for the lasting good of the present wretched race of slaves." **
Like the enslavement of Africans which ended after the Civil War, today's prison system is profitable and cruel. Like original slavery, it favors "enslaving" citizens along racial lines, imprisoning a disproportionate number of people of color - 1 in 9 young black men, 1 in 100 black women in their mid- to late 30's, and a growing number of immigrant women and children. According to a Black American Web report, black females were more than twice as likely as Hispanic females and nearly five times more likely than white females to be in prison in 2003.
PEW Charitable Trust 2008 report: http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/default.aspx
WHO IS IN PRISON? Taxpayers pay an estimated $50 billion annually to incarcerate an ever increasing portion of our population, including 2,225 adolescent offenders who are serving life without the possibility of parole. The estimate reaches $185 billion when one factors in police services and court costs, including the price of public defenders for the indigent. Of the 2.3 million imprisoned Americans, 1.25 million are mentally ill. The cruelty of imprisoning mental patients is a growing debate. Sixty percent of inmates in solitary confinement 23 hours per day are mentally ill, and 80% of prisoners in the "hole" are African Americans.
Besides the $50 billion per annum from taxpayers, many prisons earn additional capital of an unspecified sum by using inmate labor to manufacture marketable goods. Profits could increase substantially as plans are being discussed to again use American prisoners as test subjects for pharmaceutical drugs.
With discussions to again use prisoners as convenient lab rats for pharmaceutical companies, it appears that authorities finally found some "use" for mentally ill Americans. In 2006, the prestigious Institute of Medicine has recommended that federal rules be altered to allow drug testing and other experimentation on prisoners (The Boston Globe 8/17/06). Is this why families of mental patients have such trouble committing their sick relatives or getting community care under enforced treatment provisions when needed?*** Is the system just waiting on our mental patients to do some crime worthy of imprisonment, like vagrancy, disturbing the peace, substituting psychiatric medicines with street drugs, or worse? A physically healthy 30-year-old schizophrenic man who remains untreated in his community, commits murder and is sentenced to life in prison may bring over $3 million dollars at $50,000 per year plus a conservative estimate for treatment costs.
Are sick Americans being deprived of needed treatment and thereby preserved to eventually join their fellow mental patients warehoused in jail? Is support for mental patients withheld in order to eventually enrich private prison profiteers? Is this the plan for military personnel who are to be withdrawn from Iraq by 2011, many of whom suffer PTSD to varying degrees? Have we got a monster under our beds?
Who profits? It would behoove taxpayers to demand to see the investment portfolios of judges and elected officials and others who have authority over public policy. For many of these are the people who determine the length of prison sentences and vote on harsher, longer sentences but refuse to budget for job and recreation programs for our youth and community care for mental illness. See if these decision-makers are being driven by the same carnivious greed that once moved this nation to enslave millions of people for centuries. Persons who do not wish to profit from the enslavement of their fellow human beings, including mental patients and children, should check their own IRA accounts and investment portfolios.
Prisoners provide a cheap labor force that works without the protection of labor laws. In 2008, former prison guard Freda Cobb and 25 other plaintiffs sued the Federal Corrections Institute in Marianna, Florida for exposing them to dangerous lead levels while inmates burst computers with hammers to extract gold from within. Prisons reportedly earned $878 million each year while under contract to Dell and Hewlett Packard while exposing inmates and employees like Cobb to high levels of lead and toxic chemicals such as Cadmium, Barium, and Beryllium. The prisoners who lived continued to work as slaves, although sick inmates may have been even more profitable for prison investors. Substantially more tax money is demanded for hospice patients and acute mentally ill inmates, who frequently receive little or no medical and psychiatric care with the additional revenue. http://my.nowpublic.com/health/prisons-earn-878-million-annually-poisoning-inmates-and-guards-lawsuit-alleges
According to The Federal Inmate Labor Program, even the federal government is unwilling to forego taking full advantage of the 21st Century legalized enslavement of American citizens - disproportionately comprised of those who are black, brown, poor, or mentally ill.
********************
Excerpt from Biotech Empire, by Andrew Bosworth, Ph.D.
http://www.biotechempire.com/
The federal government is taking the entire concept of prison labor to a new level: The Federal Inmate Labor Program. Details of the program can be found on the Pentagon’s own website. Documents released as far back as 2005 establish “Procedures for establishing a civilian inmate prison camp on Army installations.” Sample text from the Federal Inmate Labor Program:
b. The Army is not interested in, nor can afford, any relationship with a corrections facility if that relationship stipulates payment for civilian inmate labor…
(3) No photograph, film, nor video may be taken or made of any inmate labor detail or member for any reason without prior written permission from both (name of the Army organization) PAO and (name of local federal corrections facility) officials.
In other words, the federal government is seeking unpaid laborers from among the pool of prisoners who would not be incarcerated long-term in other nations — non-violent and petty offenders who do not need constant guard. Just as in the Third Reich, federal authorities wish to convey their good intentions; in this case, they seek to enrich the life of prisoners:
“(2) Providing meaningful work for inmates…”
So it is not surprising that inmates are becoming guinea pigs for medical experiments and drug testing. Big Pharma faces a shortage of experimental subjects. Ian Urbina, in the New York Times, explains how the pharmaceutical lobby is on the verge of changing — or reversing — federal law:
An influential federal panel of medical advisers has recommended that the government loosen regulations that severely limit the testing of pharmaceuticals on prison inmates, a practice that was all but stopped three decades ago after revelations of abuse…
DEFINITION
slav·er·y: The state of one bound in servitude as the property of a slaveholder or household; a mode of production in which slaves constitute the principal work force.
Is America's prison system legalized slavery?
*****************
References:
* http://civilwar.bluegrass.net/secessioncrisis/constitutiononslavery.html
** http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_slav.html
*** www.psychlaws.org - Assisted Outpapient Therapy (AOT) programs like Kendra's law have a better than 85% success rate in reducing the number of mentally ill persons being homeless, hospitalized, imprisoned, or requiring re-arrest. AOTs combine subsistence assistance and enforced treatment to deliver many psychiatric patients to wholsome living and kept patients and their communities safer.
*****************
Mary Neal
Website: http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com
Author's page http://www.care2.com/c2c/people/profile.html?pid=513396753
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill: http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI
Articles: http://my.nowpublic.com/search?fulltext=1&type=story&keys=mary+neal
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 25:40
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (26)
at 17:48 on November 8th, 2008
Can you add an opinion flag on this?
at 18:49 on November 8th, 2008
I will if you wish, Amy, but none of this is simply my "opinion." It is all documented. I can take no credit for creating any of this - merely presenting documented facts.
1. Our Constitution provides that it is OK to enslave citizens if they have been through due process of law. (See the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution)
2. All prisoners have been through some kind of legal process, whether or not one would agree it was "due."
3. By definition, a "slave" is one dominated by force and made to toil for the profit of another.
4. Private prisons acknowledge they are for-profit enterprises.
5. Zero prisoners are in prisons of their own free will, and many of them are made to toil for the profit of another.
6. The US Congress repealed two federal laws (the Hawes Cooper Act and the Ashurst-Sumner Act) that virtually outlawed prison labor and made it a felony to move prison-made goods across state boundaries. By 1990 it was permissible for prisoners to produce products entering the stream of interstate commerce. Many of the largest corporations in America have exploited prison labor in what might be called “Operation Sweatshop.” Starbucks, Microsoft, Boeing, Victoria’s Secret and other companies have participated in prison labor programs.* Biotech Empire, by Andrew Bosworth, Ph.D.
http://www.biotechempire.com/
7. The fact that more than half of American prisoners are mental patients was presented to me by Congressman Hank Johnson, D-Ga., who stated, "According to the Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, there are about 1.25 million inmates with mental disorders in our nation's prisons." See the letter at this link:
http://my.nowpublic.com/health/justice-quest-americas-mentally-ill-prisoners-mary-neal
Before I smack "Opinion" on an article that is actually a presentation of statistics and facts from other sources that I merely assembled, please tell me which paragraph or sentence seems to be unsubstantiated opinion to you, and maybe I can supply you with a credible source for it.
Let me know please. I want to cooperate.
Blessings,
Mary
at 19:13 on November 8th, 2008
I just suggested it because it seems from your piece what your opinion is on the matter.
at 18:33 on November 8th, 2008
Answer. NO!
at 19:09 on November 8th, 2008
Hello, Panzerlawyer. Thanks for your comment. Are you in agreement that none of this is just my "opinion"?
Although this is a fact-based article rather than merely my opinion, I shall bow to Amy's wishes and label it "opinion" because I wrote a whole paragraph offering my heartfelt opinion on this injustice which I can credit to no other source:
It would behoove taxpayers to demand to see the investment portfolios of judges and elected officials and others who have authority over public policy. For these are the people who determine the length of prison sentences and vote on harsher, longer sentences but refuse to budget for job and recreation programs for our youth and community care for mental illness. See if these decision-makers are likely driven by the same carnivious greed that once moved this nation to enslave millions of people for centuries. Persons who do not wish to profit from the enslavement of their fellow human beings, including mental patients and children, should check their own IRA accounts and investment portfolios.
Mary
at 20:45 on November 8th, 2008
The answer is, yes, Mary, as set forth by the U.S. Constitution.
Section 1 of the 13th Amendment reads:
AMENDMENT XIII
Passed by Congress January 31, 1865. Ratified December 6, 1865.
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.
at 21:10 on November 8th, 2008
Thank you, Karen. The sad truth is that "due process" is becoming increasingly streamlined for poor Americans who cannot afford an attorney. Therefore, many who are absolutely innocent of committing any criminal offense whatsoever are often encouraged to plea bargain when arrested, and they plead guilty to crimes just to get out of jail. This creates for them a criminal history (usually as felons, since many crimes that were once misdemeanors are now felonies). Accused persons are then put on probation, and forced to pay a probationary fee to remain free. During America's previous slave period, slaves could also purchase their freedom. The number of persons who are imprisoned or out on parole or probation is approximately 1 in 31 Americans. I'll have to get that source for you.
Defense for crimes that carry a possible death sentence have also been streamlined, with new limitations placed on the number of appeals condemned prisoners have, and late-arriving evidence of innocence may carry no weight whatsoever if it arrives after a prisoner's final appeal. See:
ANOTHER STAY OF EXECUTION FOR TROY DAVIS - NEW TRIAL PLEASE? http://my.nowpublic.com/world/another-stay-execution-troy-davis-new-trial-please
Americans are tough on criminals, but basically fair and just-minded people. I don't think they realize that "over half of the inmates are jailed for non-violent offenses, many of which are extremely petty: possession of marijuana, public intoxication, street hustling, prostitution, loitering, bouncing checks, failure to produce identification, and even writing graffiti." (Andrew Bosworth, Ph.D.)
Thanks again for your valuable input regarding our 13th Amendment.
Mary
at 00:17 on November 9th, 2008
I want to thank all of you who recommend this and other articles of mine, and my Care2 Network fellow members and friends who note and comment on these offerings. God chose me for this work when my brother died under secret arrest as he did and we were denied justice in court the first time. My mother suffers continuing nightmares about the manner of Larry's sickness and death during the 18 days his social worker and family searched for him as a missing person and Memphis/Shelby County Jail repeatedly and falsely denied having him. Sometimes in her dreams, he was starved, or Tasered, or placed in a Restraint Chair or on a Restraint Table. Sometimes Larry was beaten to death, or suffered a fatal heart attack while in a delusional state, during which times he often hallucinated about frightening things. The other night poor Larry was gassed. One day, I hope we can be able to tell her, and settle on just one of those terrible scenarios.
If The Cochran Firm was an honest law firm, if our justice system was truly just, we would already know the answer. And this is why I sympathize so much with prisoners and their families. Besides that, since I get followed by up to four cars when I leave home, I am also a prisoner - in my own home.
Mary Neal
http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com
at 14:13 on November 9th, 2008
Seems slavery will never be ended.
at 21:53 on November 9th, 2008
Taxpayers may just wake up and demand the least expensive and most effective and moral way of dealing with the issues that face our society. Based on the amount of censorship I receive trying to disseminate this information, I do not believe it is widely known -- yet. Taxpayers do not realize that the $185 billion they pay annually to incarcerate their fellow citizens could be reduced by more than half by simply applying humane treatment for mental patients - community care for non-violent sick people, and hospitalization for more acute cases.
The public's attitude about crime and punishment shifts with increased knowledge. Capital punishment is not as popular as it once was in America and the number of executions this year has declined as a result. Two cases that had much publicity may be accountable for the changing attitude regarding the death penalty: State of Georgia v. Troy Anthony Davis and State of Alabama v. Thomas Arthur received enough publicity to make many Americans have second thoughts about the death penalty.
Because of significant exposure these cases got in the media, more Americans understand how easy it is for poor citizens to be executed without a fair hearing of their evidence due to legal technicalities. Both these men have existed on death row for years for unproved crimes. Davis is repeatedly denied a new trial, although he was convicted by witness testimony alone with no physical evidence whatsoever linking him to the crime that led to his 16 years on death row. Now seven of the nine witnesses against Davis have recanted or been found to have given duplicious testimony. Some of the witnesses claim police forced them to lie on Davis. Thomas Arthur's case actually does have physical evidence available which he says would prove his innocence now that DNA testing is available, but the State of Alabama refuses to release it for testing!
It would appear that our "justice" system is more concerned with saving money than it is with protecting its citizens from wrongful convictions. But this is erroneous. A system that rushes to convict persons without proper legal representation and denies convicted persons the opportunity of fair review of their evidence is not trying to save money. It costs substantially more to incarcerate persons for decades (some of whom may have been wrongly convicted) than it would cost taxpayers to give accused persons a fair trial to avoid prison. How could it be cheaper to limit funds for fair trials and appeals if taxpayers are subsequently stuck with paying over $50,000 per year per inmate to imprison sometimes innocent people for long sentences for petty offenses? Furthermore, each death penalty conviction costs taxpayers millions of dollars! No, our "justice" system is not curtailing justice in order to "save" taxpayers, but to line the pockets of those who profit from huge incarceration numbers. Taxpayers simply need the facts.
Thank you for your comment, Rainbowwarrior.
at 19:55 on November 9th, 2008
The American people all need to know the truth. With today's economy, the injustice system will only continue to grow and any of us can end up in prison. When it hits home, it will be too late. Do your own research, do the math and see how this monster has grown and continues to grow. People have become commodities and are considered expendable. Animals are given more consideration than human beings accused or convicted of a crime. They are guilty unless proven innocent and in today's society police testimony is always favored against that of the accused. Thank you for exposing this problem. I hope people who have not yet experienced being on the other side of the law will take note.
at 21:50 on November 9th, 2008
Thank you for your comments, Humbleneophyte.
Here is some music for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4xKlbeHLf4
at 02:00 on November 10th, 2008
NowPublic, I want to share with you something of a success story - and it is all due to your providing this forum wherein writers are able to present uncensored news. This article is cross-posted to Care2News Network by reference link, where it was front page today, and below is an entry posted to the comments at Care2.
Hello Mary, my sweet friend! I want to share an interesting experience with you...
Every Saturday I hold a Healthy Hobbies-Positive Activities Workshop at a local community center in my town. People of all ages come and we do various art projects and discuss the benefits of having healthy hobbies. During the workshop I overheard two young men discussing how difficult it can be to seperate yourself from the 'legal system' once you have been incarcerated in it. I could not help but to join in the conversation. I had actually written some of your statistics down in a small notebook in my purse and took it out and began sharing it with them. Before I knew it there were about 10 of us...(verying age group from young to older) partaking in a very passionate discussion about the prison system ensalving people for their benefit. Many of them said that they had never really given thought to the number of mentally ill who are in prison.
As I said the conversation was very passionate and as people had to depart for various reasons we all recognized and had agreed that a change needs to be made in our Country...the current 'system' is just not effective or helpful to anyone except the profiters! I told them of AIMI and shared the care2 web-site with them. I know at least 2 of the women there said that they were going to go on-line to care2 and check AIMI out. The conversation was frustrating because it seemed to me that people viewed the system as unchangeable because of the power that it holds.
We agreed that if we all took the opportunity to talk to our loved ones and friends about this problem then in our own small way we would be begining a change because we would be breaking the silence. I think that although the topic was frustrating people departed feeling like they could do something to initiate change and that felt really good!
Thank you my friend...as I have said before...your hard work impacts people and change will come...keep up the good work!
Amy
at 09:34 on November 10th, 2008
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), comprised of many of the nations elected officials in concert with the private prison industry have turned the nation's prison system into a billion dollar for profit enterprise.
Having worked in corrections for over 26 years I have seen first hand the devastating impact the dungeon for dollars industry is having on our correctional system. Their entire business model flies in the face of what corrections is supposed to be about.
True corrections professionals want fewer inmates, doing less time. While they do their time they should be afforded an opportunity to participate in programs and training designed to help them assimilate back into society when they get out, not merely to be used as profit centers for corporations and their shareholders while behind the walls.
As long as this nation allows private industry to spend millions lobbying for tougher mandatory sentencing, against parole, probation and alternative sentencing we will continue down this road as the worlds largest incarcerator of its citizens.
One need look no further than the millions the private prison industry has spent to stop just one piece of legislation - H.R.1889 The Private Prison Information Act. This legislation would have only required that the private prison industry must disclose to the public the very same information that federal correctional facilities must - no, more, no less. Yet this industry that claims cost savings and efficiency refuses, and has spent millions, to stop this legislation. Why? Because they are not more cost effective, not nearly as efficient and are far more dangerous to the staff and inmates.
Somethings should never be privatized (can anyone say "Blackwater") and our nations prisons and jails are among them. Public safety should never be for sale to the lowest bidder.
Brian Dawe, Executive Director ACO/ACOIN
E
at 12:23 on November 10th, 2008
Thanks for your response, Brian. I am greatly honored that you and others share your opinions on this issue at the site of this article.
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (AIMI) is a grassroots organization with the mission of delivering the mentally ill out of prison and into community care if inmates were convicted of non-violent crimes, with basic subsistence and treatment provided; or to mental hospitals for violent offenders. We pattern our work after Dorothea Dix, the mental health advocate of the 1800's, who was wildly successful in this same endeavor. However, Ms. Dix did not have such power and greed with which to contend.
Please visit my page and check out some other articles I wrote on this subject, and please share with me any useful information that will help us in our ambitious goal. (Links are provided after my signature on the article.) AIMI does not have millions of dollars to lobby lawmakers, so we are combating this injustice by informing the public and challenging taxpayers to hold their legislators to a higher standard of decency and financial accountability regarding monies spent on corrections. I believe we will win because God is on our side.
Thank you again for your comments. We are very pleased that you stopped by.
Mary
at 00:38 on November 11th, 2008
Karen, I promised to get the source for the stats on the no. of Americans in trouble with the law: the USDOJ. See below. Thanks.
"In 2006, over 7.2 million people were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole at yearend 2006 -- 3.2% of all U.S. adult residents or 1 in every 31 adults." ~ U.S. Department of Justice
Please keep in mind that these were 2006 figures, before the recession got worse. The figure may be 1 in 20 by now. It is undoubtedly higher than the national average in states like GEORGIA, WHERE POOR CITIZENS ARE PLACED ON PROBATION IF THEY HAVE TRAFFIC TICKETS AND CANNOT PAY THE FULL AMOUNT DUE. That regulation is probably sure to bring in a fresh crop of non-violent "criminals" as 21st century slaves.
Mary
at 12:19 on November 24th, 2008
Thank you, Mary.
This is a very sobering issue that needs to be competently addressed by the nation.
at 13:54 on November 24th, 2008
Thank you for commenting, Karen. I hope our incoming administration agrees with you. With Gonzales' conviction last week, I understand everything clearly now. Prison profiteering is the name of the game - making money off disadvantaged people by separating them from their homes and families just like slavery always has done.
Reuters reported that Gonzales is charged with withholding investigations into abuses in county jails. I am about to call District Attorney Guerra's office to tell him about the wrongful death of Larry Neal, and how the USDOJ refuses to perform its oversight responsibilities over Memphis/Shelby County Jail, although it was placed in overview due to previous abuses by the jail years before my mentally ill brother was secretly arrested and died there.
I already knew who was fighting me long before Mr. Guerra had Gonzales indicted. No judge would dismiss a case against a famous law firm by lying and saying the firm did not exist with the firm operating just four blocks from her office without feeling protected by very important people, in my opinion. No one else has the technological capability to do the things that were done to keep our justice quest quiet regarding the wrongful death of Larry Neal. No one else could get DeKalb County, Georgia's 911 emergency services to ignore my emergency call when cornered in the Chevron station last month, and NO ONE ELSE OWNS A US DOT TRUCK!
If I get an appointment to speak with Mr. Guerra, and if he agrees, I will speak to him on microphone and stream the whole conversation into NowPublic.com.
Mary Neal
at 13:15 on November 13th, 2008
My comment is # 70 on the Single Voice Project PETITION TO END PRIVATE PRISONS. See other comments here:
PETITION TO END PRIVATE PRISONS:
http://www.petitiononline.com/gufree2/petition.html
at 03:20 on February 26th, 2009
I appreciate all of you who copied this article to your individual websites. I am often pleasantly surprised when I surf the web and see that you did that with some of my work. Hopefully, with greater exposure of the problems I write about, we will eventually see positive change.
at 16:27 on April 8th, 2009
Great article, Mary. Dreadfully sad that it has to be written... so sad that people are driven by greed to the point that justice and freedom are denied to society's most vulnerable.
This is particularly good advice: "It would behoove taxpayers to demand to see the investment portfolios of judges and elected officials and others who have authority over public policy. For these are the people who determine the length of prison sentences and vote on harsher, longer sentences but refuse to budget for job and recreation programs for our youth and community care for mental illness. See if these decision-makers are likely driven by the same carnivious greed that once moved this nation to enslave millions of people for centuries."
at 16:55 on April 8th, 2009
Jenny, thank you. I wrote that statement in November when I posted this article. Then in January, the proof of it came out with the conviction of the Pennsylvania judges who were indeed private prison profiteers - convicting and sentencing children to a private detention center for $2.6 million in kickbacks. I think they even had to "guarantee" the private detention center so many kids - a quota to fill. They are not the only ones, Jenny. That is the sad thing.
Prison profiteering is likely rampant among our lawyers, judges, elected officials, media owners, and other decision makers. Why do you think they censor me so much and many forces work together to contain the news of my mentally ill, physically handicapped brother's secret death in Shelby Co. Jail and curtail justice in that matter? I call the different sources that must ban together to keep that news contained "the NWO gang." They seek to control the flow of negative information around prison profiteering, jail abuses, and certainly wrongful deaths.
Thanks for your comments and recommendation!
at 16:41 on April 8th, 2009
Sorry I missed this, duo. Thanks for posting!
at 16:58 on April 8th, 2009
Thank you, Rhonda. It was not until late last year that I understood how the whole thing fit together - the mentally ill being incarcerated instead of treated in their communities under an AOT program, which is cheaper and actually delivers many back to wholesome living at a much cheaper cost to taxpayers. Officials may not be interested in saving taxpayers the money if they are the very ones who profit.
Blessings!
at 16:28 on May 9th, 2009
I am the mother of a juvenile that came in to the system at the age of 16yrs my son
is now 33yrs old. Needless to say we live in Georgia, and I ask myself does " race"
really matters? and my answer is YES, would my son be white he would be free by now
or at least near his release. In Nov of 2007 he was set off for another aight yrs.
Ilona Griffin/Georgia
at 20:21 on May 9th, 2009
Ms. Griffin, please come to the HUMAN RIGHTS FOR PRISONERS MARCH IN ATALNTA ON MAY 16 - NEXT SATURDAY. We are meeting in Woodruff Park on Peachtree Street at 3:00 p.m. and walking several blocks past Atlanta Journal Constitution and to CNN headquarters. We will end the march in Olympic Park where people who care about justice in America can meet and share information over refreshments.
Mary NealThe media cannot ignore enough of us with signs right outside their doors without showing themselves up, can they? They may try, so bring your own camera. BRING YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY AND STAND UP FOR YOUR SON AND OTHERS. We deserve a system of justice that is truly just - not railroading people into prison to profit prison owners. Many people are sentenced to prisons for crimes they really did commit, but torture and death - which happen to many prisoners in the USA - should not be a part of their punishment. Yet such things are tolerated!
News of the Human Rights for Prisoners March in Atlanta on May 16 is censored online, and my ability to do things in-person is limited by in-person stalking by people who seek to contain our message of Truth. Please post the link below to all your friends, family, and groups. Thanks in advance, and may God bless you and your son. I am sorry about what you endure. I know it is hard. My brother was murdered in jail under secret arrest, and the authorities don't give a darn - won't even investigate - they think. But they will, or they will admit this is no country of "equal justice for ALL." That is the choice.
Human Rights for Prisoners March Planned for May 16 in Atlanta ...
http://my.nowpublic.com/world/human-rights-prisoners-march-planned-may-16-atlanta
PLEASE SEE THE 25 JUSTICE CONCERNS THE MARCH WILL HIGHLIGHT LISTED IN THE ARTICLE AT THE LINK ABOVE.
Thanks,
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
http://Care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI