The Unbelievable Brutality Unleashed on Kids in For-Profit Prisons

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/rights/155326/the_unbelievable_brutality_unleashed_on_kids_in_for-profit_prisons/

_310x220


Michael McIntosh couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He had come to visit his son at the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility near Jackson, Miss., only to be turned away. His son wasn’t there.

“I said, ‘Well, where is he?’ They said, ‘We don’t know.’”

Thus began a search for his son Mike that lasted more than six weeks. Desperate for answers, he repeatedly called the prison and the Mississippi Department of Corrections. “I was running out of options. Nobody would give me an answer, from the warden all the way to the commissioner.”

Finally, a nurse at the prison gave him a clue: Check the area hospitals.


After more frantic phone calls, he found Mike in a hospital in Greenwood, hours away. He was shocked at what he saw. His son could barely move, let alone sit up. He couldn’t see or talk or use his right arm. “He’s got this baseball-size knot on the back of his head,” McIntosh said. “He’s got cuts all over him, bruises. He has stab wounds. The teeth in the front are broken. He’s scared out of his mind. He doesn’t have a clue where he’s at – or why.”

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Pure Dickens.

[xchrom]

3. +

[Odin2005]

17. Or the movie and novel "Holes"

[tclambert]

47. "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"

Yes, and they're called Wal-Mart.

[valerief]

49. ++

[no_hypocrisy]

50. BTW until the 19th Century, all prisons in Britain were for-profit.

[Fumesucker]

2. And yet we have DUers who will defend private prisons all the way to spittle flecked irrationality..

This poster being a prime example if you follow the thread..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=652528

[xchrom]

6. dude...that was just Crazy...

scary crazy

[NNN0LHI]

19. I was watching the exchange and concluded you were talking to someone in the private prison business

There is no doubt in my mind.

I was going to point it out in that thread but I figured you already knew it.

Don

[randome]

26. I don't get you.

Most of that thread is about giving prisoners a chance to work so they can be integrated back into society. I don't see how that equates to a private, for-profit prison system.

[Fumesucker]

27. The particular poster I was linking to was definitely pro private prisons..

Even to the point of claiming that Canadians are seven times as criminal as Americans..

I have a relative that did time in prison back in the seventies, he had to go into business for himself because no one would hire him when he was released. He's actually done quite well for himself, among other things he owns two nice homes free and clear, but it has nothing to do with the fact he was worked like a rented mule in prison.

[randome]

28. Not everyone has your friend's smarts, I would guess.

But yeah, I don't think the state should EVER turn over something like a prison system to private enterprise. Some things just need to stay under centralized control. Utilities. Prison systems. Health care.

[MattBaggins]

34. [sob] LEAVE PRIVATE PRISONS ALONE [/sob]

You people are so mean to those poor private prisons.

[handmade34]

4. very, very sad...

and certainly not to downplay the story... but the "for-profit" world, in many ways, is brutal to kids... marketing junk for food and gratuitious material goods to them... along with stories such as yours...

[CBGLuthier]

9. Wow what invalid comparisions

Really, very lame to compare those things to children being beaten but OK whatever.

[MH1]

32. Poisoning may not be as acutely brutal but it is still harmful and cruel.

I think the poster you're replying to was NOT trying to equate the two situations, just pointing out another way that unrestrained capitalism will exploit and harm people, especially children, in the quest for profits.

That's how I read it, anyway.

[October]

43. I read it the same way as you, MH1. /nt

[marmar]

5. It's the Roman Colosseum redux.

[cali]

7. no, it's not. this is about greed

and the abdication of the state to private industry.

[marmar]

11. No doubt....but a guard encouraging a fight seems Colosseum-esque to me.

nt

[freshwest]

31. How about group home employees doing it to developmentally disabled clients? It happens.

The stories I could relay of what goes on would blight the souls of anyone who had a soul. Unfortunately, I'm starting to realize some people will never begin to grasp what is wrong with this stuff.

[HiPointDem]

12. not to mention decades of encroachment of the line between children and adults in the justice

system.

and honestly, i think it's tied into privatization and expectation of the need to lock up more young people as things go to hell for them.

[mopinko]

20. a bit of history

which i point out only to say that you are drawing a line going down where none exists.
the idea that juveniles should be treated differently than adults is less than 100 years old. before that there was no line. in many states, that difference means nothing and never did. so, decades of encroachment on a line that was barely established 10 decades ago is a bit of a misinterpretation.

i do agree, however, that although the line was drawn, and in some few cases it has made a real difference, in general we have been quite half hearted in protecting juvenile offenders.

[HiPointDem]

39. so is the prohibition of child labor. so is social security. so is the vote for women. etc.

[mopinko]

45. you missed my point.

the line you see as pointing in the wrong direction is, in fact, mostly going in the other direction.

[HiPointDem]

55. no, i understood your point, such as it was. i just see it as an attempt to minimalize the

roll-back that's been taking place for the last 40 years.

[malaise]

8. Private prisons are a crime

I have no doubt that some of those owners are capable of allowing their prisoners to commit crimes.

[think]

10. This shit needs to hit the main stream. America should not let this

stand. Private prisons are pure fucking evil. This is not representative of a true democracy and smacks of totalitarianism.

[KG]

13. brutal DURec

[get the red out]

14. Drug treatment centers too

From what I have read, adolescent drug treatment centers are nothing but torture camps too. The keep conning the parents and "they system" out of more and more money saying the kid needs to "stay longer" to get well. They are often psychologically destroyed.

[Cooley Hurd]

30. Google "Straight, Inc" and "Mel Sembler"

Talk about horror stories...

[get the red out]

35. Yes, I've read those

I had found the links on another site, I couldn't recall the names. It's just unreal that things like that are done to kids in the US. There needs to be more awareness of it.

[DLevine]

15. No civilized society would allow this. Disgusting. n/t

[jwirr]

22. Bingo

[Odin2005]

16. OMGOMGOMGOMG!!!

[Brooklyn Dame]

18. Brutality is a problem

but the problem originates with the fact that prisons have become a for-profit enterprise. Kids who should never be in the system are funneled to prisons in order to keep the prison complex flush with cash. Abuses won't stop until the incentive goes away.

http://borderlessnewsandviews.com/2012/02/lock-em-up/

[jwirr]

21. I saw the picture of the old time prisons below - what came to mind is that back then they put

the mentally ill and the developmentally disabled in prisons instead of separate facilities. Wonder if that is happening in Mississippi. This is a crime against humanity regardless of what the prisoner did. SHAME to a state that allows for-profit prisons without oversite from the state. And even oversite from the state does not work if the can be bought.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

23. During college, I was privileged to work at a detention center for juveniles.

The director of the facility had it down to a science. To this day there has never been an assault on a staff member OR a fellow inmate. Kids are only allowed to speak to each other in the presence of a detention officer, and that's only at meals and during recreation prior to going to bed. Sure, we had to restrain kids, but it was for their own safety. The restraints were soft and they were put on to their bed, facility locked down, door open, and a detention office watched over them the entire time until they settled down. Then they were put into suicide bedding and a gown and were locked down until they'd had time to cool down, sleep and whatnot. They were brought out to eat and such. The kids were safe regardless of their behavior. They didn't have to worry about getting jumped by other kids or staff. We watched each other, we watched them. It was a great place for kids. Strict, but they got an education and they got good, homestyle-cooked, healthy meals and got attention from us that they didn't get from their parents. I fell in love with those kids and I was always happy to see them go back out into the world and was glad when they didn't come back. It is amazing the turn around kids can make when you give them a chance. I hope we instilled a little something in them that they didn't get from their parents: a little responsibility, a desire for an education and knowing that they were loved simply because they were amazing kids. It always makes me so sad when I see kids who never had a prayer with the hand they were dealt when it came to their families.
The boy in the OP, thank goodness his father found him. I hope the hospital was taking care of him. And I hope that dad has a really good atty, because if not, that kid is going to be right back where he started when he's healed. That is inexcusable. This for profit crap has got to stop. For profit health care, for profit prisons, etc. You cannot put a price on the head of a life and that is what they are doing. This is infuriating. We have got to get away from capitalism or it is going to be the end of human kind.

[pmorlan1]

24. Monstrous

This is simply monstrous. There should be no such thing as a for profit prison.

[mactime]

25. Absolutely shocking

If prisons are privatized why not make it a requirement that (just throwing things out, many more could be added):
24h medical staffing on site
Criminal background checks on guards
Weekly state visit and inspection.

If they want to make a profit, they have to follow these rules.

[Tsiyu]

29. This is America's disgrace

Grown men - and often grown women as well - who get their jollies off AND get paid to torture other human beings.

I've been people watching lately. I see these authoritarian types who strut around, looking all "important" and holier-than-thou, and I wonder what turns a person into a monster who MUST control others in the harshest, often most criminal ways.

How do you become such a person?

How do all the monsters who run for-profit prisons live with the knowledge of their own sheer evil?

There should be no for-profit incarceration of anyone. No one should make their fortune this way.

America has become so evil. It's hard to face sometimes.

And our politicians are complicit in this evil, because they have their hands held out for all that blood money.

All are shameless pigs.

[dotymed]

51. I live near a large military base.

Our town seems to hire only ex-military police officers. I was at my Daughter's College graduation ceremony last week. I understand that "we" just hired a lot of new cops. It was a disgusting, military display of crowd control against family and friends who just wanted to watch their loved ones.
These "goons" (male and female) had obviously been told to be in full "crowd control mode." They were yelling and being rude to all attendees. I had quite a few (my age) people comment on this unnecessary police state atmosphere. I was standing (in the correct "zones&quot taking pictures and being aware of others doing the same.
Actually, the "peace-keepers" were the most thuggish attendees at the ceremony.

[fasttense]

53. Wow, I've been to 5 high school and college graduations of

family and friends over the last 3 years and never, ever saw one single private or public cop. Crowd control was merely announcements on the public address system or notes in the program. That was it. And there were absolutely no problems. If a person was where she/he was not suppose to be, someone would tell them and they would move.

We have got to do something about our militarized society. Cops at graduations is symptom of a sicken society.

[Tsiyu]

54. That is so sad

Have a family member on the way to celebrate a nephew's Ph.D. She is elderly with heart trouble. Hope this isn't the new standard for graduation themes.

That's one day you want to be full of joy for the accomplishments of your loved one. Instead you end up feeling like someone has left a layer of oily evil on you.

I can understand that there may be violent people who would disrupt events. We live in strange times. But plots against crowds are presumably stopped in order not to destroy the occasion for the attendees. That we would trade one sort of abuse for another on what should be a happy, peaceful day says a lot about humankind.

[Uncle Joe]

33. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, xchrom.

[Scuba]

36. Shame. Shame. Shame.

[99th_Monkey]

37. Private prisons epitomize everything thats wrong with "privatization"

whether it's prisons, voting machines, the military, social security or
whatever. Privatization is all about greedy Corporations gouging taxpayers
to pay more, for less, for a substandard (in cases like this horrendously
so) service or product.

Yet the tentacles of private prisons have wrapped themselves around
30 states, and still counting (this article was written one year ago).
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/19/us/19prisons.html?pagewanted=all

[Gregorian]

38. Forgive me, but- USA! USA! USA!. We're number one!

Disgusting. I hate this country. That's why I'm on this forum for the last ten years. Trying to figure out what's going on, and how to turn it around.

I think we're outgunned. The lobbyists run this nation.

[Liberal_in_LA]

40. k&r

[meow2u3]

41. They're corporate death camps

Let's stop calling them for-profit prisons. They're worse than mere prisons. It's time we call them concentration camps and/or corporate death camps. We have to turn the people against privatization at any cost.

[Blue Owl]

42. Anyone who supports for-profit prisons can GO FUCK THEMSELVES

Since when is it appropriate to profit from crime in any way, shape, or form?

[October]

44. OMG, so true! It is absurd. Excellent point. /nt

[KansDem]

48. Agreed...

Only the state can suspend your rights. And this is done in a court of law according to prescribed rules. If found "guilty," you go to prison. Once you've "paid your debt," then your rights are restored and you return to society. This is how society is protected; this is how the community survives.

There is no logical argument for permitting a private entity to hold you against your will. Only the state can do that, not venture capitalists...

[Warren DeMontague]

46. If you don't want to be tortured, killed, maimed or locked in a room w no food or water for 5 days

...dont smoke teh pot!

Pot smokers deserve nothing less than the death penalty. And you should be fucking ECSTATIC that your tax dollars are bankrolling it!

[47of74]

52. We need to replace the 13th Amendment

With one that says this;

Section 1. The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution is hereby repealed.

Section 2. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 3. Private penal institutions shall not exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 4. Violation of any part of this amendment shall be punishable by life imprisonment in a maximum security installation with no possibility of reprieve or parole. Any corporations found to be in violation of this amendment shall be dissolved, with their assets going first to their victims, followed by the United States government.

[Initech]

56. I like this idea. The more I read about private prisons the more I'm convinced they need to go.