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-- It's 2011. Brazilian Employers put people in slave-like conditions (http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=233964)
It's 2011. Brazilian Employers put people in slave-like conditions
Brazil employers accused of slave-like conditions
Brazil employers accused of slave-like conditions
Another week - another 52 employers added to the list.
Brazil's legal category of slave-like labor includes cases in which a person is subjected to exhausting hours, is forbidden to leave because of a debt with the employer and earns less than the minimum wage of 622 reals ($336).
In other news, poster SouthAmerica thinks the U.S. should emulate Brazil.
January 4, 2012
SouthAmerica: Reply to gwb-trading
Here is the link to the non-profit organization that compiled that list with the names of all businesses that they included on their list:
Reporter Brasil
http://www.reporterbrasil.org.br/
Complete list with 294 company names
http://www.reporterbrasil.org.br/li...a/resultado.php
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Part 1 of 2
January 4, 2012
SouthAmerica: Reply to gwb-trading
I am against slave labor, and I have been writing on that subject for many years, as a matter of fact I had a long chapter on that subject in one of my published books.
Quoting from my book published in 1998:
“The hospitality business of the United States government includes 125 Federal Prisons, 1375 State Prisons and 3300 municipal, county and local jails as of the end of 1997. In the 1980s they
expend 37 Billion dollars in new prison space. In the 1990s the U.S. is expending over 45 billion dollars in new prison space.
..."The money spent on building and running prison systems now exceeds that allocated to higher education in many states."
The Federal government and most states are presently engaged in a building program that will add a large amount of new prisons to their current inventory, and the budgetary allocations for incarceration will only increase.
"... the United States incarcerates its citizens at a higher rate than any other country in the world." In 1993, before the Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa (he was elected on April 29, 1994), and before South Africans gave amnesty to many black prisoners, the rate of incarceration for African-American men in the United States was 3,109 black inmates per 100,000 black men population, a rate that was four times that of black men in South Africa (729 inmates per 100,000 black men)." In 1997, the incarceration of black men in the United States still 3,013 black inmates per 100,000 black men population a rate that was seven times that of white men (427 white inmates per 100,000 white men population).
...During the period between 1990 and 1995 the government built 213 new prison facilities. They built 168 State prisons and 45 Federal prison facilities. Their hospitality business created 283,000 new beds for an average of 1328 beds per prison.
...Generally, it takes between two and three years to site and build a prison (maximum-security prisons may take five years).
"In 1992, taxpayer spend between $ 30,000 to $ 50,000 per inmate per year to maintain the federal and state correctional systems. That includes not only operating costs but also the cost of new construction.
Depending on the level of security and the region of the United States, it costs anywhere from $ 30,000 to $ 130,000 to build each new bed space. The average cost was somewhere around $ 56,000 for each new bed space.
Construction costs are only the down payment of a prison's cost to society. The Federal Bureau of Prisons explains that operating a prison over its practical lifespan costs about fifteen to twenty times the original construction costs."
We can estimate that the average cost in 1998 should be around $ 61,000 for each new bed.
Incarceration, as punishment, is here to stay and there is a lot of public support for construction of new prison space. Just as one example if a state decides to build a new 1,000 bed prison at an average cost of $ 50,000 per bed space. The prison would be built at a price of $ 50 million dollars and represents a state investment of $ 1 billion dollars for its useful lifespan.
"In 1988, approximately 35 percent of prisoners were living in institutions built more than fifty years ago, and 12 percent were in facilities built before 1888." The more we continue to build the more we will continue to fill up any space that is created. The availability alone drives up incarceration rates. Just remember the government's wallet it is open. It is a blank check an you can right up any figure you want.
In 1991, when the U.S. had only 1.2 million people in prison and jail, (since then that number has increased by 50.0 %) the global rates of incarceration was as follows per 100,000 population:
1) United States (450 inmates per 100,000 population)
2) South Africa (300 inmates per 100,000 population)
3) Venezuela (170 inmates per 100,000 population)
4) Canada (110 inmates per 100,000 population)
5) China (100 inmates per 100,000 population)
6) Australia (75 inmates per 100,000 population)
7) Denmark (70 inmates per 100,000 population)
8) Ireland (60 inmates per 100,000 population)
9) Japan (50 inmates per 100,000 population)
10) India (40 inmates per 100,000 population)
Source: FBI, Bureau of Justice Statistics
The rate of incarceration for the United States has increased to 690 inmates per 100,000 population for the year 1998. Currently, the U.S. incarcerates by far the highest number of people per capita in the world.
In the past Americans found all kind of excuses to justify slavery. "Today, we see cruelty, indifference, self-interest and self-delusion in such arguments. Yet they were couched in resolutely moral terms__ in high-flown rhetoric, biblical injunctions and appeals to Right. ...Americans have always resorted to such moralizing."
Reality:
The United States has the largest prison system in the world with an estimated 1.8 million people in jail, and State and Federal prison system in 1997. By the year 2000 the United States will have over 2 million people in prison in the United States.
In Brazil there were only an estimated 150 thousand people incarcerated in their State and Federal prison system in 1997.
The United States population is 60.0 % higher than the Brazilian population and at the same time the number of people in prison in the United States is 12 times higher than the number of people in prison in Brazil.
Brazil vs. New Jersey (USA)
The total population of Brazil is estimated at 165 million people and the total population in New Jersey (USA) is estimated at 8 million people at the end of 1997.
In 1997, the prison system in New Jersey, cost New Jersey tax payers the amount of $ 627 million dollars for the cost of State of New Jersey Prisons only.
In 1997, the entire prison system in Brazil including all State and Federal Prisons in the country cost Brazilian tax payers the amount of $ 600 million dollars.
An article published by "The Jackson Sun" shows the benefits and the economic boom which a new prison can provide to any town. The economic benefits are like a dream coming true. A great source to revive the economy of any small town with recession proof jobs.
The article mentioned as an example, the town of Whiteville, a small, rural town in northwest Hardeman County in West Tennessee, they got awarded a new prison in 1996 by the State of Tennessee.
This $ 45 million project is the 22nd prison in that state, the facility will eventually house 2,016 inmates and employ 443 workers, most locally.
The town had thrived at one time with the business from sharecroppers in the 1950s and 1960s, before farm industrialization caused the number of farmers to dwindle.
The article continues, "Because of the prison, the city will be getting its first subdivision. And other developments are popping up. They include the first hotel residents have seen in 30 years and a new bank. ... Small towns with one grocery store end up with four grocery stores once the prison is located there.
Could the change be too much for this town of 1,174 people to handle? Probably not most said. ... It's going to wake this sleepy little town. ... Now, with potential businesses moving in, some shopkeepers expect customers to return to town, bring the business full circle.
Homes in the subdivision likely will be bought by employees of Corrections Corporation of America, a private company that will run the prison. The company has estimated its annual payroll will be $ 8 million dollars".
The article also tell us; "Model prisoners will work on road crews, making 17 to 55 cents an hour, saving the city manpower and money."
Lets analyze some of the other information on the "Corrections Corporation of America" investment package. Lets start with the Form 10-K for the period ending December 31, 1997.
"The Company believes the United States private corrections industry is in a period of significant growth. In the United States, there is a growing trend toward privatization of government services and functions, including corrections and detention, as governments of all types face continuing pressure to control costs and improve the quality of service. ...Further, as a result of the number of crimes committed each year and corresponding number of arrests, incarceration costs generally grow faster than any other part of a government's budget.
...At December 31,1997, the Company managed 46 of the 97 privatized United States adult facilities and 36,589 of the 59,464 private United States adult beds according to preliminary estimates prepared for the 1997 Private Adult Correction Facility Census (the 1997 Census)."
The 97 privatized prisons in the United States represents only 6.5 % of the total number of 1,500 facilities in the Federal and State prison system.
The 97 privatized facilities represents only 2% of the total number of facilities when we also include the 3,300 municipal, county and local jail system.
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Part 2 of 2
January 4, 2012
SouthAmerica: Reply to gwb-trading
...Prison labor, a modern form of slavery, works well under capitalism.
Let me quote from the New Jersey State official government website in the internet at the following address: http://www.state.nj.us/deptcor/index
"Inmate labor in New Jersey and around the country is a significant and growing resource. We manufacture over 1,500 products for sale to any tax-supported institution or agency inside and outside the state.
To find out more about what we make in New Jersey's correctional facilities, click on any of the major product category listings.
1) Furniture
2) Signs
3) Janitorial Equipment
4) Clothing
5) Printing
6) License Plates
7) Baked Goods
8) Services"
"Society is now witnessing a resurgence of interest in prison industries. The expansion of prison industries is appealing to elected officials and policy makers partly because of the rising costs of incarceration and declining state and federal budgets.
Currently there are more than twenty-six prison-based industries in over ten states across a variety of institutions from community-based to maximum-security facilities.
...These small businesses sell their products and services on the open market to private sector customers. The types of products and services include cloth bags, data processing, vinyl products,
and ceramics. ...Large companies are not generally found in this model, but the Howard Johnson and Best Western motel chains are exceptions. They hire prisoners to serve as reservation clerks and in other service positions. ...During prime tourist season, especially on holidays and weekends, inmate labor is useful to these types of business establishments."
Americans are using inmate labor in New Jersey and around the country. Remember the newspaper article of The Jackson Sun, which I mentioned before, which was included with the investment materials sent by Corrections Corporation of America. I quote again from that article; "Some prisoners will help the community, said Allen Burgery, warden at the new prison. Model prisoners will work on road crews, making 17 to 55 cents an hour, saving the city manpower and money."
Note: (do not forget in the United States you have to be politically correct and do not refer to this type of labor as "Slave Labor". Use instead the more palatable, and acceptable term "Inmate Labor")
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re: US prisons
SouthAmerica - Please let me say that I do enjoy your postings and following them with interest. There are some items I agree with and others I don't - but certainly you bring an interesting and valid perspective to the conversation.
In regards to your thoughts about U.S. prisons; let me give you the general thoughts about prisons from the U.S. population.
"If you can't do the time then don't do the crime"
"Unlike other countries we prefer to have our criminals locked up in prison than running through the streets."
I would put up the prison conditions in a U.S. condition against the prisons located anywhere south of the U.S. border. Would your prisoners prefer to be incarcerated in U.S. prison or one of the prisons in a South American country. (Let me help you with the answer with this - the U.S. receives an endless line of requests from prisoners in your prisons begging to be transferred and serve their sentence in a U.S. prison).
In a nice clean U.S. prison, the inmates get three square meals per day plus snacks, cable T.V., gyms, exercise, medical care, dental care, education (including college degrees) and other perks not seen in many countries outside the U.S. Asking the prisoners to work a little each day to develop job skills so they will not become repeat offenders when they are released is part of a rehabilitation program. Even better they do get paid for their labor so they can buy items at a store in the prison including electronics, etc. Do prisons in Brazil pay prisoners for their labor?
Comparing having a person locked up for a crime in prison work (a criminal) to an individual forced into slave labor conditions who is not guilty of any crime is an absurd. Keep in mind that all the work programs in U.S. prisons are VOLUNTARY - prisoners do not have to work to earn money if they do not want to -- but it is strongly urged that they develop some work skills.
Of course, over 50% of the prisoners in U.S. prisons are serving sentences for drug related offenses. The source of all of these drugs is cartels in South and Central America. This simply means that the countries sheltering these cartels are ultimately responsible for placing these people in U.S prisons - if you want to follow the drug trade money.
Asking the prisoners to work a little each day to develop job skills so they will not become repeat offenders when they are released is part of a rehabilitation program. Even better they do get paid for their labor so they can buy items at a store in the prison including electronics, etc.
--------------------
Fair point.
If you want to reduce the adult inmate population, reform the juvenile justice system. There is no politcal will to do this.
In regard to the above quote, instilling work ethic and rehabilitation would be much easier with youths than adults.
US/EU must align outsourcing and globalization to https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipe...Social_mobility of BRIC nations.
__________________
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communal_Award
Gwb-trading: “In regards to your thoughts about U.S. prisons; let me give you the general thoughts about prisons from the U.S. population.
"If you can't do the time then don't do the crime"
"Unlike other countries we prefer to have our criminals locked up in prison than running through the streets."
I would put up the prison conditions in a U.S. condition against the prisons located anywhere south of the U.S. border. Would your prisoners prefer to be incarcerated in U.S. prison or one of the prisons in a South American country. (Let me help you with the answer with this - the U.S. receives an endless line of requests from prisoners in your prisons begging to be transferred and serve their sentence in a U.S. prison).
In a nice clean U.S. prison, the inmates get three square meals per day plus snacks, cable T.V., gyms, exercise, medical care, dental care, education (including college degrees) and other perks not seen in many countries outside the U.S. Asking the prisoners to work a little each day to develop job skills so they will not become repeat offenders when they are released is part of a rehabilitation program. Even better they do get paid for their labor so they can buy items at a store in the prison including electronics, etc.
*****
January 9, 2012
SouthAmerica: The prison system is a very complex subject with many social and financial implications.
In most countries around the world they have better solutions that makes more sense socially and economically than the system that we have in the United States.
The American prison system is so screwed up that today many states spend more money with its prison system than with education.
I wrote on my book that the US prison system is not about crime and punishment – it's about using poor uneducated people that the US government had no idea how to use them to create a system to lock them up and create a new industry to provide jobs here in the United States.
I just found a video where Noam Chomsky says the same thing about the US prison system.
The prison industrial complex in the United States is very large and an important source of job creation in the United States.
As usual most Americans are clueless about the implications and massive costs associated with their simplistic solutions: in this case related to crime and punishment.
If anything with the new law that the US government just passed the prison system in the United States is going to grow by leaps and bounds.
The mainstream media in the United States is completely worthless and they are not allowed to talk about this subject just like many others.
*****
Gwb-trading: “Do prisons in Brazil pay prisoners for their labor?
Comparing having a person locked up for a crime in prison work (a criminal) to an individual forced into slave labor conditions who is not guilty of any crime is an absurd. Keep in mind that all the work programs in U.S. prisons are VOLUNTARY - prisoners do not have to work to earn money if they do not want to -- but it is strongly urged that they develop some work skills.
Of course, over 50% of the prisoners in U.S. prisons are serving sentences for drug related offenses. The source of all of these drugs is cartels in South and Central America. This simply means that the countries sheltering these cartels are ultimately responsible for placing these people in U.S prisons - if you want to follow the drug trade money.
*****
SouthAmerica: The prisons in Brazil are like hell: over crowded, dirty, disgusting in every way.
The drug trade is about money, and they are just supplying the goods for a nation full of junkies.
The United States is the country that created the demand for illegal drugs and that demand it would be met one way or another.
The real problem is here in the United States: its large number of junkies that create the demand for the illegal drugs.
Never mind the illegal drugs, Americans take billions and billions of US dollars every year of legal drugs as well which makes the pharmaceutical industry one of the most profitable businesses in the old USA.
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January 9, 2012
SouthAmerica: Here Noam Chomsky talks about the black population in the USA and its connection to the US prison system.
Regarding Latin America he mentions how the United States is losing control of South America.
Noam Chomsky Pt. 2: Slavery by Another Name – October 5, 2011
Noam Chomsky Pt. 3: Latin America
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In the opening post there was no mention of prisons or US yet every follow-up post seems to talk about American prosons. Am I missing something?
Re the closing of the auto industry and the impact on blacks.
The largest Arab immigrant population in the US is in Dearborn Mich (suburb of Detroit). The Arabs displaced the black workers at the the Ford Rouge plant (back in the 70's), you know why? They outworked them.The Arabs would work 12 hour shifts,7 days a week. Arabs didn't drink,they actually showed up for work., they saved their money sent it back home and brough in families, They bought up homes in Dearborn, upgraded them and spread out. The only cheap homes for sale in Dearborn were located near the Rouge plant. Cheap homes, no white people wanted them but the Arabs did.
Either you get with the program or sit around with your baseball cap and hoodie (just like the guy in the video) and talk about slavery.Talking about the impact of history is for educated nerds who have too much time on their hands, just like us, but not when their is work to be done.
Oh and one more thing S/Aoff topic though.
Since your not a big fan of GS, are you short their stock? (okay if you don't answer this),
Secondly, if you knew with certainty that GS pps would go up during this year, would you buy GS stock and cash in and make big bucks?
Are we walking the walk here or just talking the talk..
reply to SouthAmerica:
So suddenly this thread has turned into prisons in America and not about SLAVERY in BRAZIL - nice re-direct. --- but I will play...
Let me point out a few things about prisons in America:
- Fewer than 7% of the inmates have jobs. Only the most trusted inmates are allowed to work. The privilege to work is something that inmates beg to be allowed to do. In some states inmates who work are eligible for early release due to the work.
- The total number of prisoners who work in the U.S. in paid positions is under 100,000. This does not really impact the unemployment rate or compete with the private sector; nor is this in any form "job creation" (especially since the number has gone down for the past three years). The 8 million illegal immigrants working in the U.S. have a much greater impact on the unemployment of American citizens and competing in the private sector.
- By law, inmate-produced goods can only be used inside prisons or sold only to government agencies - and does not directly compete with private businesses or labor. This law is from the 1950s.
- The average yearly cost for locking up a prisoner in the U.S. is $37K. This cost is not offset by prisoner work.
- Even private prison contractors such Wackenhut and the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) must adhere to federal law and can not publicly sell in the U.S. products made in prisons. Any time these corporations slip up regarding this law, the government sues them and terminates the contract with the facility.
- There are no states in the U.S. where the money spent by the state on the prison system is greater than the money spent on K-12 education.
- In North Carolina where I live, prisoners clean up the roads, mow the yard at the governor's mansion, make license plates, make furniture for state offices, and other tasks for the state government. As per federal law they do not make items which are sold to the public.
- Over 60% of Americans support building more prisons and hiring more prison guards. The reason criminals are placed in prison is their problem with personal responsibility, not due all the nonsense about their "poor childhood, etc." with a bunch of phooey psychological nonsense. If you can't do the time then do not prey on society and do the crime.
I agree that "the prison system is a very complex subject with many social and financial implications." I will also state that the prison system in the U.S. is much better than any country south of the U.S. in Latin or South America.
Let me also state that the mainstream media in the U.S. has closely followed the debate around prisons and it is regularly reported on. The basic reaction of American citizens is "Good - put the prisoners to work, lock them up for a long time so they do no more crime."
In regards to the drug issue, your input is that is a "demand problem" in the U.S. rather than a "supply issue" from South America. Let me state that there was never a demand for these drugs in the U.S. until the governments in South America supported their creation and shipment. The demand in the U.S. only occurred after countries in South America started "pushing" their supply.
Of course, if you want to discuss drugs I would be happy to post the links showing that a much greater percentage of the population in South American countries are coke users than in the U.S. The difference is that in the U.S. we have a "War on Drugs" and lock these people up while in South America there seems to be little enforcement of drug laws so users are free to roam the street and steal for their next hit.
Quote from SouthAmerica:
Gwb-trading: “In regards to your thoughts about U.S. prisons; let me give you the general thoughts about prisons from the U.S. population.
"If you can't do the time then don't do the crime"
"Unlike other countries we prefer to have our criminals locked up in prison than running through the streets."
I would put up the prison conditions in a U.S. condition against the prisons located anywhere south of the U.S. border. Would your prisoners prefer to be incarcerated in U.S. prison or one of the prisons in a South American country. (Let me help you with the answer with this - the U.S. receives an endless line of requests from prisoners in your prisons begging to be transferred and serve their sentence in a U.S. prison).
In a nice clean U.S. prison, the inmates get three square meals per day plus snacks, cable T.V., gyms, exercise, medical care, dental care, education (including college degrees) and other perks not seen in many countries outside the U.S. Asking the prisoners to work a little each day to develop job skills so they will not become repeat offenders when they are released is part of a rehabilitation program. Even better they do get paid for their labor so they can buy items at a store in the prison including electronics, etc.
*****
January 9, 2012
SouthAmerica: The prison system is a very complex subject with many social and financial implications.
In most countries around the world they have better solutions that makes more sense socially and economically than the system that we have in the United States.
The American prison system is so screwed up that today many states spend more money with its prison system than with education.
I wrote on my book that the US prison system is not about crime and punishment – it's about using poor uneducated people that the US government had no idea how to use them to create a system to lock them up and create a new industry to provide jobs here in the United States.
I just found a video where Noam Chomsky says the same thing about the US prison system.
The prison industrial complex in the United States is very large and an important source of job creation in the United States.
As usual most Americans are clueless about the implications and massive costs associated with their simplistic solutions: in this case related to crime and punishment.
If anything with the new law that the US government just passed the prison system in the United States is going to grow by leaps and bounds.
The mainstream media in the United States is completely worthless and they are not allowed to talk about this subject just like many others.
*****
Gwb-trading: “Do prisons in Brazil pay prisoners for their labor?
Comparing having a person locked up for a crime in prison work (a criminal) to an individual forced into slave labor conditions who is not guilty of any crime is an absurd. Keep in mind that all the work programs in U.S. prisons are VOLUNTARY - prisoners do not have to work to earn money if they do not want to -- but it is strongly urged that they develop some work skills.
Of course, over 50% of the prisoners in U.S. prisons are serving sentences for drug related offenses. The source of all of these drugs is cartels in South and Central America. This simply means that the countries sheltering these cartels are ultimately responsible for placing these people in U.S prisons - if you want to follow the drug trade money.
*****
SouthAmerica: The prisons in Brazil are like hell: over crowded, dirty, disgusting in every way.
The drug trade is about money, and they are just supplying the goods for a nation full of junkies.
The United States is the country that created the demand for illegal drugs and that demand it would be met one way or another.
The real problem is here in the United States: its large number of junkies that create the demand for the illegal drugs.
Never mind the illegal drugs, Americans take billions and billions of US dollars every year of legal drugs as well which makes the pharmaceutical industry one of the most profitable businesses in the old USA.
.
Quote from SouthAmerica:
January 9, 2012
SouthAmerica: Here Noam Chomsky talks about the black population in the USA and its connection to the US prison system.
Regarding Latin America he mentions how the United States is losing control of South America.
Noam Chomsky Pt. 2: Slavery by Another Name – October 5, 2011
Noam Chomsky Pt. 3: Latin America
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January 9, 2012
SouthAmerica: Reply to zdreg
Watch some of these videos then you might change your mind about Noam Chomsky:
http://thefinalcollapseoftheusdolla...omsky_8716.html
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Quote from SouthAmerica:
January 9, 2012
SouthAmerica: Reply to zdreg
Watch some of these videos then you might change your mind about Noam Chomsky:
http://thefinalcollapseoftheusdolla...omsky_8716.html
.
January 9, 2012
SouthAmerica: Reply to zdreg
http://thefinalcollapseoftheusdolla...down-of-us.html
I posted a bunch of stuff under that single blog title.
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gwb-trading: The total number of prisoners who work in the U.S. in paid positions is under 100,000. This does not really impact the unemployment rate or compete with the private sector; nor is this in any form "job creation" (especially since the number has gone down for the past three years). The 8 million illegal immigrants working in the U.S. have a much greater impact on the unemployment of American citizens and competing in the private sector.
- By law, inmate-produced goods can only be used inside prisons or sold only to government agencies - and does not directly compete with private businesses or labor. This law is from the 1950s.
*****
January 10, 2012
SouthAmerica: Reply to gwb-trading
The law about prison labor changed in 1979.
The prison industrial complex became a big business in the US since the 1970's and a source of job creation, which includes the construction of all these prisons, and the large amount of people necessary to keep the prison system operating 7/24 365 days per year.
It takes a lot of people and money to warehouse 2.3 million people in the United States prison system.
US Prison Labor
http://www1.american.edu/ted/jail.htm
...The United States has seen a recent increase in the number of private firm/correctional facility partnerships that uses prison labor to manufacture goods and provide services. On the rise since the creation of the Prison Industries Enhancement (PIE) program in 1979, prison-industry partnerships have risen 200 percent.
Described by some as a program designed to fill the boring days of an inmates’ life and a way to prepare them for life after release by giving them marketable skills, PIE fills a need for cheap labor.
However, many others have begun to notice the fundamental flaws with the program, among them low wages, the increased number of inmates, and the refusal by correctional facilities to allow inspectors into plants.
...In 1979 the Justice System Improvement Act allowed for privatization of prisons and for the transport of their goods across state boundaries. After this change in law, prison industry profits jumped from $392 million to $1.31 billion. However, the Depression legislation still holds true for state and federally run prisons.
...Many companies use prison labor, so it is likely that most Americans have bought goods or used services provided or created by inmates. Items ranging from clothing, such as Victoria’s Secret and blue jeans, and computers to services such as data entry and telemarketing are all made and performed by prison labor. As another bonus, prison made goods do not have to be labeled as such and often are appealing to companies who wish to be able to put "made in the USA" on their products.
Companies that Use Prison Labor In the USA
MicroJet, Nike, Lockhart Technologies, Inc., United Vision Group, Chatleff Controls, TWA, Dell Computers, Microsoft, Eddie Bauer, Planet Hollywood, Redwood Outdoors, Wilson Sporting Goods, Union Bay, Elliot Bay, A&I Manufacturing, Washington Marketing Group, Omega Pacific, J.C. Penney, Victoria's Secret, Best Western Hotels, Honda, K-Mart, Target, Kwalu, Inc., McDonald's, Hawaiian Tropical Products, Burger King, "Prison Blues" jeans line, New York, New York Hotel/Casino, Impereal Palace Hotel/Casino, Crisp Country Solid Waste Management Authority, "No Fear" Clothing Line, C.M.T. Blues, Konica, Allstate, Merrill Lynch, Shearson Lehman, Louisiana Pacific, Parke-Davis, Upjohn
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January 10, 2012
SouthAmerica: Reply to gwb-trading
Here I am quoting from my book as follows:
Even though the United States had about 2 million people in prison when I wrote my book, "only 150,000 people in prison, of all these inmates are there for what Americans consider as violent crimes.
The hospitality business of the United States government includes 125 Federal Prisons, 1375 State Prisons and 3300 municipal, county and local jails as of the end of 1997. In the 1980s they expent 37 Billion dollars in new prison space. In the 1990s the U.S. is expending over 45 billion dollars in new prison space.
In the decade 2000 to 2010 the U.S. government should expend a minimum of 88 billion dollars, (1998 dollar value) to accommodate their new guests in the prison system.
..."The money spent on building and running prison systems now exceeds that allocated to higher education in many states."
The Federal government and most states are presently engaged in a building program that will add a large amount of new prisons to their current inventory, and the budgetary allocations for incarceration will only increase.
...Depending on the level of security and the region of the United States, it costs anywhere from $ 30,000 to $ 130,000 to build each new bed space. The average cost was somewhere around
$ 56,000 for each new bed space.
Construction costs are only the down payment of a prison's cost to society. The Federal Bureau of Prisons explains that operating a prison over its practical lifespan costs about fifteen to twenty times the original construction costs".
We can estimate that the average cost in 1998 should be around $ 61,000 for each new bed.
Incarceration, as punishment, is here to stay and there is a lot of public support for construction of new prison space. Just as one example if a state decides to build a new 1,000 bed prison at an average cost of $ 50,000 per bed space. The prison would be built at a price of $ 50 million dollars and represents a state investment of $ 1 billion dollars for its useful lifespan.
"In 1988, approximately 35 percent of prisoners were living in institutions built more than fifty years ago, and 12 percent were in facilities built before 1888". The more we continue to build the more we will continue to fill up any space that is created. The availability alone drives up incarceration rates. Just remember the government's wallet it is open. It is a blank check an you can right up any figure you want.
Info from the annual report from CCA for the year ending 1997
...But, the annual report provides some interesting information which most people never think about. And I will quote: " The necessities for living 24 hours a day within secure walls__from beds to books, soap to soup, radios to restraints__all represent thousands of opportunities for Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) to provide the best service at the best cost". They need a lot of goods: "It's like running a small town when you put it all together. ...988,000 toothbrushes, 16,620 pairs of socks, 296,400 cans of corn, 3,5000,000 pairs of latex gloves, 2,300 handcuffs".... "Doing all that requires assimilating about $ 2 million dollars of items for a typical 1,500-bed prison that must be on hand the first day of operations".
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Social costs
When you go in the road of the prison system national policy, remember you are starting a cycle which usually takes 7 generations of people to break it. The other thing to keep in mind is that if you do not treat this people reasonable well when they are in prison, the harsh you treat them when they are incarcerated the more violent they are when they are finally released. There is no free lunch or simplistic solutions here.
Every time society decides to send a person to prison, society is making a very large investment of its scarce resources.”
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Here are some other web links regarding this subject:
Slavery, the Prison/Industrial Complex, and American Hypocrisy - Fri, 08/24/2007
http://www.greencommons.org/node/770
...In today’s America, drug laws have become the new Jim Crow laws, the prison/industrial complex has become the new plantation, and the warden has become the new overseer. America’s newest slaves aren’t picking cotton. They’re assembling computers, making women’s lingerie, booking airline flights over the phone, telemarketing for major corporations, and doing all kinds of tasks that free Americans used to be employed at doing. What appeared to be a normal plant closing by U.S. Technologies when it sold its electronics plant in Austin, was actually the company relocating its operations to a nearby Austin prison. One hundred and fifty “free” employees lost their jobs to the new slaves.
If you book a flight on TWA over the phone, a prisoner may be taking your order. If you buy yourself or your loved one something from Victoria Secret, it may have come from a prison in South Carolina. Corporations like Chevron, Boeing, IBM, Motorola, Honda, Toys R Us, Compaq, Dell, Texas Instruments, Honeywell, Hewett-Packard, Microsoft, Nordstrom’s, Revlon, Macy's, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, and AT&T are a few of the ever-growing list of companies that are, or have at one time, used this kind of slave labor. Federal prisons operate under the trade name Unicor and use their prisoners to make everything from lawn furniture to congressional desks. Federal safety and health standards do not protect prison labor, nor do the National Labor Relations Board policies nor does the minimum wage apply. Corporations that use slave labor don’t pay overtime, sick days, pensions, and don’t have to deal with unions for this work. Prison/slaves are paid about 25 cents an hour.
Who are these new slaves?
...During the past two decades roughly a thousand new prisons and jails have been built in the United States. Nevertheless, America's prisons are more overcrowded now than when the building spree began, and the inmate population continues to increase by 50,000 to 80,000 people a year In 1977 the inmate population of California was 19,600. Today it’s over 170,000, which amounts to more inmates in its jails and prisons than do France, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, Singapore, and the Netherlands combined. After spending $5.2 billion on prison construction over the past fifteen years, California now has not only the largest but also the most overcrowded prison system in the United States, and for the first time among large states, California will spend more on its prisons than on its public universities.
Profiting from slavery
Prisons are rising all over America. It’s a fast rising growth industry with investors on Wall Street and corporations we all know are paying peanuts to prisoner/slaves so they don’t have to employ those who buy their products. Even when crime goes down, jail population still goes up. Prison labor has its roots in slavery. After the Civil War ended, blacks were imprisoned on a variety of trumped up reasons and were then loaned or hired out to plantations and farms and all would share in the profit, except the prisoner/slave of course. That same “hiring out” of prisoners is still practiced in the United States today.
The prison/industrial complex is a multi-billion dollar industry complete with lobbyists, trade shows, and conventions. It profits from an evil in the US that neither democrats nor republicans will seek to remedy.
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Prison–industrial complex
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison...ustrial_complex
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Solitary Confinement: The Invisible Torture
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2...aryconfinement/
...However, another form of torture was not just used on detainees, but is being used on at least 25,000 Americans right now.
That’s the number of people currently held in long-term solitary confinement in the United States, living for years in 80-square-foot concrete cubes lit by round-the-clock fluorescent light, with little or no human contact. The U.S. is alone among developed countries in using long-term solitary confinement on a regular basis.
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It is true, I have visited a law court and jail in New York State and the conditions were worse than I had expected. Although I think it is wrong to compare the US and Brazillian systems (very different countries, systems, politics, histories) there is at least in the US a thriving and (technically) free press and lobbyists that can launch campaigns for prisoners in such a way that a poor-mans fmaily in Brazil is unable to do.
The costs to run the prison system have to be weighed against the society cost and benefits of lower crime.
Liberals ask why does prison population need to be so high when crime is dropping. Never do they admit that this is a major cause of lower crime rates.
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Better policing, technology push US crime rate to lowest point in decades
Daniel B. Wood | The Christian Science Monitor | Jan 09, 2012
Enlarge This Image
The last time the crime rate for serious crime – murder, rape, robbery, assault – fell to these levels, gasoline cost 29 cents a gallon and the average income for a working American was $5,807.
That was 1963.
In the past 20 years, for instance, the murder rate in the United States has dropped by almost half, from 9.8 per 100,000 people in 1991 to 5.0 in 2009. Meanwhile, robberies were down 10 percent in 2010 from the year before and 8 percent in 2009.
The declines are not just a blip, say criminologists. Rather, they are the result of a host of changes that have fundamentally reversed the high-crime trends of the 1980s. And these changes have taken hold to such a degree that the drop in crime continued despite the recent recession.
Because the pattern "transcends cities and US regions, we can safely say crime is down," says James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston. "We are indeed a safer nation than 20 years ago."
Increased incarceration, including longer sentences, that keeps more criminals off the streets. Improved law enforcement strategies, including advances in computer analysis and innovative technology. The waning of the crack cocaine epidemic that soared from 1984 to 1990, which made cocaine cheaply available in cities across the US
January 10, 2012
SouthAmerica: Reply to Mercor
The Relationship Between Declining Crime Rate and Legalization of Abortion
A segment from the 2010 documentary film Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner on effect on crime of legalized abortion.
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SouthAmerica - let's get back to slavery in Brazil
Historically Brazil had the largest slave population in the world, substantially larger than the United States.
But let's walk forward to modern times. A minimum of 40,000 people in Brazil find themselves toiling as slaves. Some estimates put the number closer to 120,000.
You can buy the following book to enlighten yourself on the subject.
Trapped: Modern-Day Slavery in the Brazilian Amazon
or read some of the links at the end.
Do you really think that the U.S. should emulate countries in South America like Brazil? Or that the behavior of the U.S. government and corporations is much more evil than the government and corporations in South American countries.
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-01-09/...nal?_s=PM:WORLD
http://www.mongabay.com/external/slavery_in_brazil.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4536085.stm
http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Brazil.htm
http://www.unpost.org/?p=6963
January 11, 2012
SouthAmerica: Reply to gwb-trading
I am not in favor of any type of slavery, including prison slave labor.
In the United States slave labor is all over the place, but in Brazil a large part of this slave labor is happening in areas that are far away and hidden from the population areas.
I had to do a lot of research regarding the subject of slavery and its relation to Brazilian history when I was writing my book about Brazilian history.
Here is an article that I wrote in 2003 that gives some information about slavery in Brazil:
Brazzil Magazine - June 2003
“Brazil and the Angolan Connection”
Written by Ricardo C. Amaral
http://brazilandtheangolanconnectio...and-angola.html
...From 1600 to 1836, when Portugal abolished slave trade, Angola may have been the source of as many as 2 million slaves who came to the New World. More than half of these slaves went to Brazil. Considering the number of slaves who actually arrived, and taking into account those who died crossing the Atlantic or during transport from the interior to the coast for shipping, the Angolan area may have lost as many as 4 million people as a result of the slave trade."
...Angola has a strong connection to Brazil and to the United States because these countries were the main places were Angolan slaves landed in the New World. Brazil was the largest recipient of these Angolan slaves, but the United States wasn't far behind.
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Slavery in the United States was a much nasty experience for the slaves than slavery was in Brazil, and much of that difference had to do with the influence of the Catholic Church in Brazil.
Slavery in the United States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaver...e_United_States
Year 1860 total population in the USA = 31,443,321 people
Year 1860 number of slave in the USA = 3,953,760 black slaves
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Slave labour that shames America – December 2007
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...ica-765881.html
...Migrant workers chained beaten and forced into debt, exposing the human cost of producing cheap food
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Here is a detailed study by Cornell University about the slave labor in the United States.
Hidden Slaves: Forced Labor in the United States
http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.e...ted%20states%22
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Forced Labor in the United States: A Contemporary Problem in Need of a Contemporary Solution
http://www.du.edu/korbel/hrhw/resea.../slavery/us.pdf
... Legal slavery ended in the United States in 1865, yet the practice of forcing individuals to work against their will, oftentimes in inhumane conditions, continues today. Currently there are around 50,000 people working in forced labor situations in the United States. Although this number is smaller than it was during the 18th century, finding and freeing these individuals is difficult because they are hidden away and exploited.
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Reply to SouthAmerica
Can I ask for a list of books you have written and where they are available?
I only find one on Amazon - Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva - about the founding father of Brazil. I will note this book is not currently available. Do you work with a particular publisher.
Thanks.
Quote from SouthAmerica:
January 10, 2012
SouthAmerica: Reply to Mercor
The Relationship Between Declining Crime Rate and Legalization of Abortion
A segment from the 2010 documentary film Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner on effect on crime of legalized abortion.
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January 12, 2012
SouthAmerica: Reply to gwb-trading
A few years ago everybody had some copies of my book in stock such as Borders, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon. Here is the link to Barnes and Noble:
Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva, The Greatest Man in Brazilian History
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/jos...aral/1004083640
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The economic impact of the current Exodus from the United States
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showt...and#post1920117
...May 14, 2008
SouthAmerica: Reply to Derrick 1983
...My second book "The Real Promised Land" - I made only about 50 copies of that book and sent a copy to a very select number of people including Louis Farrakhan. (This book was published in Jan. or Feb of 2000). ( Louis Farrakhan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Farrakhan )
It is a very controversial book in many ways. I have a chapter about 80 pages long with a full detail of the American prison system. I talk about the US government paying reparation to the black population in relation to slavery, and much more.
The book had a complete plan regarding the black population on the United States - I mentioned in the book that the window of opportunity for that plan to work was very small because of the baby boom generation and the state of the finances of the US government.
By the way, that window of opportunity already has been closed and the black population in the US are out of luck.
It is a very interesting plan and the plan made a lot of sense to me when I wrote that book in 1999.
I gave the amount of reparation for each person, and the strategy to follow the plan. I also mentioned all the groups of people who would be against such a plan and the reasons why?
Some other people who got a copy of this book includes:
Charlie Rose ( http://www.charlierose.com/ )
Robert L. Johnson ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_L._Johnson )
Toni Morrison ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Morrison ) and
Cornel West ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornel_West ).
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