New Exposé Tracks ALEC-Private Prison Industry Effort to Replace Unionized Workers with Prison Labor

[ensho]

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/5/new_expos_tracks_alec_private_prison

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Many of the toughest sentencing laws responsible for the explosion of the U.S. prison population were drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, which helps corporations write model legislation. Now a new exposé reveals ALEC has paved the way for states and corporations to replace unionized workers with prison labor. We speak with Mike Elk, contributing labor reporter at The Nation magazine. He says ALEC and private prison companies "put a mass amount of people in jail, and then they created a situation where they could exploit that." Elk notes that in 2005 more than 14 million pounds of beef infected with rat feces processed by inmates were not recalled, in order to avoid drawing attention to how many products are made by prison labor.
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got to keep them private prisons Full, don't you know. so the prison Barons can keep their pockets Full of money

slave labor is a money maker in the land of the free and the brave

[valerief]

1. But people refuse to believe prisoners are there to provide cheap labor for unscrupulous

corporations. They prefer to believe it could never happen in "America".

[midnight]

2. ALEC has a library of bills that are going to change the very life you knew.

http://www.recallscottwalker.com/2011/07/alec-for-profit-criminal-justice-and-wisconsin/
The Wisconsin state legislature apparently recognized the folly of truth in sentencing and rolled-back aspects of the law between 2001 and 2009. When Scott Walker became governor, he reversed this progress and pushed for legislation fully restoring the ALEC corporation-supported truth in sentencing, despite the costs to taxpayers and despite claiming Wisconsin was “broke.” In early July, Governor Walker ‘s office released a statement supporting expanded use of prison labor, another idea promoted in ALEC bills. Some observers have speculated that private prisons are next.

ALEC Exposed

Almost always drafted outside of the state with little or no input from state residents (but significant input from corporate interests), ALEC bills have made substantial changes to laws in all 50 states and in some ways determined how state taxpayer dollars are allocated. The full list of legislative membership in ALEC is not public, and legislators introduce ALEC bills in the legislator’s own name. ALEC conferences allow elected officials to hobnob with some of the wealthiest corporations in the world, often behind closed doors and without public scrutiny. This secrecy has prevented state residents from holding their elected leaders accountable for passing laws that serve out-of-state corporate interests at the expense of the individuals that live, work, and vote in the state.

ALEC Exposed, a project of the Center for Media and Democracy, has made available an archive of analyzed ALEC “model bills” to give citizens the tools to make informed decisions and fully participate in their state democracy. One way state residents can use these tools is to better understand the origin of for-profit bail-bond and for-profit prison laws in their state, and whose interests are being served by the politicians supporting these bills. Please visit ALEC Exposed.org.

[malaise]

3. Neo-slavery and no outcry from politicians or M$Greedia

Frightening indeed!!

[hootinholler]

4. Oppose them and yer soft on crime!

Reprehensible but not illegal.

-Hoot

[SpiralHawk]

5. The Prison Planet, Inc. (R) locks up smelly Proles*

"There's profit in imprisoning proles. Smirk. Sneer."

- RepubliCorp, Inc. (R)


* Proles - Unless you are a billionaire republicon PuppetMaster (R), this means you.

[EC]

6. So how does this create jobs for the public?

It helps with the bottom line temporarily for government, but when everyone loses their jobs from prisoners taking them for 20 cents an hour, it certainly doesn't create taxpayers i.e. revenue for the long term. Repubs are just so myopic.

[Lorien]

7. Kick. nt