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Tuesday, March 7th, 2017

While Trump distracted media, AG Jeff Sessions ensured billions in profit for prison corporations

Author:     Leslie Salzillo
Source:     Daily Kos
Publication Date:     Saturday Mar 04, 2017 · 12:04 PM PST
 Link: While Trump distracted media, AG Jeff Sessions ensured billions in profit for prison corporations
Stephan:   The New American Slavery Trend that is occurring within the American Gulag is about one thing: a few corporations making billions of dollars trafficking in human misery. And no aspect of this trend is more morally bankrupt than prison privatization. The United States is now one of the largest slave nation's in the world, and the trend is for it to grow. We have five per cent of the world's population and 25 per cent of the world's prisoners. So, of course, down in the pit of that moral depravity is where you will find the Trump administration. Here's why I say this.

n August of 2016, the former Dep. Attorney General Sally Yates, via the Obama administration, made a public announcement to federal officials that phasing out  “for-profit” private prisons would begin in December. At the time, contracted prisons were holding approximately 12% of the country’s federal inmates. In her memo posted on the Department of Justice (DOJ) website, Yates stated:

“We now have approximately 195,000 inmates in bureau or private contract facilities down from a high in 2013 of approximately 220,000.

This decline in the prison population means that we can better allocate our resources to ensure that inmates are in the safest facilities and receiving the best rehabilitative services – services that increase their chances of becoming contributing members of their communities when they return from prison.”

Just over a week ago, on February 23, the current Trump-appointee AG Jeff Sessions, known for racism and who’s been under scrutiny for lying under oath in Congress about his relationship with Russia, basically nixed the order for phasing out contract prisons. His actions will not only continue to cause more non-violent people (especially of people of color) to spend more time in prison. In addition, he not only  destroyed an important Obama-era accomplishment, not only […]

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4 Comments

  1. skhovland on Tuesday, March 7, 2017 at 5:41 am

    The title is exactly correct. While so may people in and out of the media have been distracted by the clown act real stuff has been done. People need to start paying attention to matters of substance and start pushing back.

  2. Beth Alexander on Tuesday, March 7, 2017 at 7:43 am

    The link to the full article has been corrected.

  3. skhovland on Tuesday, March 7, 2017 at 9:03 am

    Trump didn’t invent for-profit prisons, and they were fully operational during most of the Obama years.

    If Obama issued an order to close them just before the end of his term then he was setting a trap.

    As with Obamacare, a lot of businesses are making great money off this and would not appreciate anyone who killed their Golden Calf.

    • Stephan Schwartz on Wednesday, March 8, 2017 at 8:29 pm

      Steve —
      I do wish you would actually do some real research, and not just read rightwing websites. The modern private prison business first emerged and established itself publicly in 1984, under President Ronald Reagan, when the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), now known as CoreCivic, was awarded a contract to take over a facility in Hamilton County, Tennessee. It really took off under Bush 43, and Obama actively cut back on this trend. Trump is now reversing that.