U.S. Politics

[PaulC]

hardcore lefties call him too conservative... and hardcore righties call him an outright communist, whoever is the president is going to get stick. I just know he's much much better than Bush

[leviramsey]

Yes like  the health care bill that  expanded health care to provide affordable health insurance to low and middle income families is a real right wing policy.

If you think that's what PPACA does, you're seriously deluded.

On health policy, for the record, Nixon proposed an NHS-style system as opposed to the giveaway to the health insurance and drug industries that PPACA is.

[AVFCforever1991]

 

Maybe the US should take note.

They won't, cuz private prisons always need fresh blood to lock up. Private prisons with shareholders and everything.  It's diabolical. How did my country turn into such a wretched hive of scum and villainy?

 

 

 

Yep, which means they will never change the drug laws and keep chucking people in prison for a non violent crime such as growing Cannabis. Which in tern means when they get inside they meet big time drug dealers and essentially turning the guys who grow a bit of weed into hardened criminals, and giving them a criminal record which is far more harmful than the the plant they were growing. 

 

It's a flawed system. 

 

This is from 08, but still relevant:

 

 

And by ethnicity:

 

 

And by crime:

 

 

 

Edited June 27, 2013 by AVFCforever1991

[leviramsey]

Not to mention all the well-paying public sector union jobs in the prisons...

To simultaneously bemoan the prison population and support public sector unionization is the height of cognitive dissonance.

[AVFCforever1991]

[coda]

Nice photo op for Obama visiting Robben Island today. Could do with visiting a prison island closer to home.

[maqroll]

He's not meeting with Mandela though, and I'm guessing its because he's been denied a meeting with Mandela. 

[peterms]

Not to mention all the well-paying public sector union jobs in the prisons...

To simultaneously bemoan the prison population and support public sector unionization is the height of cognitive dissonance.

 

That's interesting.  I had understood that the prison programme in the US was predominantly private, and increasingly so.  And that the increase in the prison population was connected with that, and the bribes to politicians to enact more repressive measures, to increase their profits.

 

Is it not so?

[bickster]

He's not meeting with Mandela though, and I'm guessing its because he's been denied a meeting with Mandela.

I guess its because Mandela is about to drop dead

[maqroll]

I'd like to think Obama was snubbed 

[bickster]

I'd like to think Obama was snubbed 

Wasn't he meant to be meeting Mandela's daughter?

[leviramsey]

That's interesting. I had understood that the prison programme in the US was predominantly private, and increasingly so. And that the increase in the prison population was connected with that, and the bribes to politicians to enact more repressive measures, to increase their profits.

Is it not so?

Per ProPublica:

1,612,395 total state and federal prisoners (they cite the Bureau of Justice Statistics)

128,195 of that 1.6 million (so 8%) are in private prisons

37% increase in the private population since 2002 (so 34,622 net)

Bureau of Justice Statistics says the total 2002 prison population was 1,440,144, so the overall increase was 172,251

So as of 2010, the private prisons accounted for 8% of the inmate population and about 20% of the net growth in that population since 2002. That's not exactly predominant, is it?

Consider the California Correctional Peace Officers Association:

The California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), founded in 1957 as the California Correctional Officers Association (CCOA), is the corrections officers' labor union in California. The CCPOA is widely considered one of the most powerful political forces in California politics. CCPOA made the largest contribution to the No on 5 Campaign in 2008, contributing one million dollars. CCPOA president Don Novey established the union's tradition of forming close alliances and friendships with political leaders during the 1980s.

Proposition 5 was a referendum which would have reduced or eliminated imprisonment for most nonviolent drug offenders... the ten largest donors to the "No" campaign contributed a total of $2.3 million, of which more than half was from public employee unions.

Until the 1980s, unionized prison guards were relatively weak politically in California, with membership divided between the California State Employees Association and the CCOA. Don Novey led a successful effort during the 1980s to combine California Youth Authority supervisors and parole officers with prison guards, launching the CCPOA's rise to prominence. The CCPOA's membership increased substantially. Novey was an aggressive lobbyist and helped bring the union to a position of great influence in Sacramento politics, eventually becoming one of the most powerful unions in the state.

By 1992, the CCPOA was California's second largest political action committee, contributing over a million dollars to legislative candidates. The CCPOA also contributed over a million dollars to Pete Wilson's successful 1990 gubernatorial campaign, the largest independent campaign contribution on behalf of a candidate in California history. The CCPOA subsequently backed Gray Davis's successful campaign for governorship in 1998.

The CCPOA has supported campaigns for tougher criminal sentences, including large contributions to the 1994 campaign for Proposition 184, the 'three strikes' ballot initiative, which puts repeat offenders behind bars for lengthy terms.

The CCPOA is deeply involved in a variety of political activities. Most spending is done through political action committees. Although its membership is relatively small, representing only about one tenth the membership of the California Teachers Association, CCPOA political activity routinely exceeds that of all other labor unions in California. The union spends heavily on influencing political campaigns, and on lobbying legislators and other government officials. CCPOA also hires public relations firms and political polling firms.

As calls for reform of the state's prison system escalated during 2006, putting pressure on former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to take a more aggressive stance on reform.

Lobbying efforts and campaign contributions by the CCPOA have helped secure passage of numerous legislative bills favorable to union members, including bills that increase prison terms, member pay, and enforce current drug laws. The CCPOA takes the position that correctional officers perform an essential public service that puts in great danger, and strives for a safer California.

Because the CCPOA is one of the very few public employee unions whose members' party leanings more or less track the general public's split in the areas where the union members are, and the union does a very good job of getting out the vote in primary elections (which otherwise have generally poor turnout), in a slight majority of California legislative districts, the Republican and Democratic candidates can't get on the ballot without CCPOA endorsement (and an incumbent who goes against the CCPOA is very likely to be knocked out in the next primary). So it's not surprising that California tends not to enact policies that would reasonably be expected to reduce the prison population; nor is it a surprise that the prison guards have the most favorable pension arrangement of any union in the state.

The editors of Prison Legal News, in the 1990s (I'd provide cites from the WSJ, Forbes, Reason, etc., but to avoid a potential sideshow, I'll go with a source that doesn't look like it could ever be reasonably accused of being a right-wing mouthpiece):

There is a well fed Political Interest Group feasting at the California public trough, and most taxpayers are unaware of the huge growth in this creature's appetite and political clout. It has grown from a political runt to one of the biggest hogs in the barnyard in an incredibly short span of time. This group has swelled with such swiftness and cunning that most California taxpayers would not even recognize its name, much less realize how much of an impact it is having on their pocketbooks and on the state's economy. The group I'm speaking of is the California Correctional Peace Officer's Association (CCPOA).

In 1980 there were 22,500 prisoners in California. The average salary for California prison guards was $14,400 a year. The state budget for corrections was $300 million per year. In the past, California schools and universities were the envy of the world. The state's economy was strong, bolstered by huge numbers of defense jobs. CCPOA was a politically minuscule organization vying for attention among the giants of fat defense contractors.

By 1996 there were more than l40,000 prisoners in California. The average salary for California prison guards is $44,000 per year (well over $50,000 with benefits)-$ l 0,000 more than the average teacher's salary. Prison guards require only a high school education and a six week training course. Most teaching jobs require at least an undergraduate degree in education. In 1993 California spent a greater portion of its state budget on prisons than it did for education for the first time (compared to as recently as fiscal year 1983/84 when California spent 3.9 percent of its budget on its prison system, and 10 percent on higher education). The state corrections budget in 1994 was $3 billion. The demise of the Cold War meant the decline of defense jobs. According to the National Commission for Economic Conversion and Disarmament, a non-profit Washington D.C. group, there has been a decline of over 750,000 defense related jobs in the last five years alone-most of them in California. But as the military-industrial complex is waning in California, the prison-industrial complex is mushrooming. In this way California's wealth now comes not only from perpetuating the misery of millions of people around the world, but also from the rigidly enforced misery of thousands of its own citizens. Between 1984 and 1994 California added a whopping 25,900 prison employees, substantially more than were added to all other state departments combined (16,000). By one estimate, hiring for prisons has accounted for 45 percent of the growth in all California jobs in that ten year period.

The CCPOA's rise to political power can be traced to 1980, when Don Novey became the group's president. Novey is the son of a prison guard. He graduated from American River College and served in Army Intelligence in the late '60s. Before becoming the head of the union, he worked as a prison guard in Folsom.

Prior to Novey's ascendancy, the union had been a pitifully weak organization, with a membership divided between the California State Employees' Association and the California Correctional Officers' Association. In all it had only about 5,600 members. But when Novey took over its leadership, the union combined Youth Authority supervisors and parole officers with prison guards, and with the acceleration of prison building, the CCPOA membership has swelled to 23,000 members.

Recognizing not only the political importance of lobbying but the power of public relations, Novey began spending about half a million dollars on PR and on honing a public image for himself: that of the self-depreciating, fedora-wearing, blue collar labor leader. But it is in the arena of political lobbying, rather than PR, that Novey has shown true genius.

The CCPOA collects nearly $8 million a year in dues, and it expends twice as much in political contributions as the California Teachers Association, although it is only one-tenth the size. The union is now second in the state only to the California Medical Association in political contributions. But in reality it is the most powerful and influential lobbying group in the state, as there are no vested interests against spending more on prisons. Don Novey has shaped the CCPOA into a potent political force. Candidates for governor have genuflected at Novey's feet in hopes of gaining the endorsement and deep pocket largess of his association, and have submitted to grilling by the union leadership to see if they were worthy. Jack Meola, the CCPOA's executive vice president, says their questioning of candidates is intense. "Our primary goal is to protect the public," he says in his smooth PR banter to the press, "to keep thugs off the street and in jail where they belong." To fail the test, Novey maintains, could mean the difference between victory and defeat. Diane Feinstein found that out in 1990 when Novey's union gave almost $1 million to enthrone law enforcement's friend, Pete Wilson, in the California State House.

And, of course, the union not only wields the political stick, it also dispenses the carrot, and not just to Pete Wilson. Novey and his union contributed $76,000 to the 1992 re-election campaign of David Elder, the chair of the state assembly's Committee on Public Employment and Security-the very same committee that rules directly on the pay and benefits of prison guards. And they received value for their political contribution dollar. Prison guards got raises six months ahead of other state government employees. Their average salary of $44,000 per year is 58 percent above the national average for prison guards. And they now boast one of the best pension plans of any state employee. In addition to excellent medical coverage, they receive 75 percent of their salary at the time of retirement, which can be 55 after 30 years' service, and they get a 2 percent yearly increase after two years of retirement.

To ward off the critics, Novey's PR machine drums up the theme that prison guards patrol "the toughest beat in the state." But that simply is not the case. Over the past three decades 13 prison guards have been killed throughout the state, compared with 63 officers in the LAPD-an organization with half the members of the CCPOA's 14,000 who serve as guards. (The rest of the 23,O00 CCPOA members work in parole or as Youth Authority supervisors.)

The slick PR is aimed mainly at the public. State politicians don't need to hear any propaganda to toe the CCPOA line. They know that one false step could result in Novey pulling a "Vasconcellos" on them. That is, the CCPOA richly endowing the campaign coffers of their opponent, as Novey's union did to John Vasconcellos, the chair of the state assembly's Ways and Means Committee and an opponent of the prison building boom. Although it was generally conceded that Vasconcellos' seat was among the more secure in the assembly, the CCPOA still laid more than $75,000 in the lap of Vasconcellos' 1992 opponent, just to let him know that it did not appreciate him signing the ballot argument against the prison bond initiative in 1990, or questioning the fat contracts being awarded to prison guards at a time when the state was in the most dire fiscal straits since the Great Depression. Vasconcellos was re-elected in 1992 with a substantial majority, but a clear, sharp message had been sent to the self-described "progressive" who has labored long and hard for a more thoughtful approach to crime and incarceration, as well to any other state politicians who might entertain the thought of publicly opposing prison-building legislation or criticize the guards' union.

The crowning glory of the CCPOA's political action campaign is without a doubt the passage of Proposition 184, the "Three Strikes" Initiative. The CCPOA contributed $101,000 to get Prop 184 on the ballot. The CCPOA donation was clearly a key factor in getting the initiative on the ballot and on getting it passed. Even though the legislature had already been cowed into passing virtually identical legislation, the fact that it was passed by voter initiative ensures that the legislature cannot easily modify this "Prison Guard Full Employment Act." CCPOA member Lt. Kevin Peters summed up the membership's position on "Three Strikes" when he said:

You can get a job anywhere. This is a career. And with the upward mobility and rapid expansion of the department, there are opportunities for the people who are [already] correction staff, and opportunities for the general public to become correctional officers. We've gone from 12 institutions to 28 in 12 years, and with 'Three Strikes' and the overcrowding we're going to experience with that, we're going to need to build at least three prisons a year for the next five years. Each one of those institutions will take approximately 1,000 employees.

But Lt. Peters, like the CCPOA as a whole, can see no farther than the end of the snout he has buried in the public trough. Though the public has been hoodwinked by a crime-fear hysteria fueled by the media-and capitalized on by both political parties to gain the attention and affection of voters-critics are beginning to voice their doubt and concern over the direction these misguided policies are taking California. The once Golden State, whose public education system was the envy of the world, now ranks in the bottom 10 nationally in spending from kindergarten through high school. There are almost no meaningful drug rehabilitation programs in California, and almost no housing for the homeless; hospital emergency rooms are closing all over the state; libraries in L.A. County are closed on weekends, and many are open only two days a week; kids in some of the poorest neighborhoods have no place to go after school; and California now spends more on prisons than it does on colleges and universities. It is in a climate such as this that jack-booted reactionaries are able to sound the Nazi-like alarm that immigrants are the cause of the state's budget woes and the reason there are not enough jobs, schooling, medical and social services to go around.

Many corporations have fled California because of increased state taxes, and taken their jobs with them. Although the decrease in industrial jobs has been partly offset by increases in corrections jobs, it doesn't take a genius to see that this trend doesn't make for a viable economic strategy. As more and more working wage jobs are eliminated, the unemployed and the poor will have fewer and fewer economic opportunities. The state budget for health, education and social services will continue to be bled by the prison expansion programs.

According to James Gomez, California's former Director of Corrections, it will cost $40 billion to build the 21 new prisons required to house the surge in prisoners that "Three Strikes" (and similar "get tough" laws) will generate, and an additional $5.5 billion a year to run them. A RAND Corporation study predicts the corrections budget will double, growing from 9 percent of all state expenditures to 18 percent. It also predicts that prosecution costs will soar. "To support implementation of the law, total spending for higher education and other government services would have to fall by more than 40 percent over the next eight years," the RAND report concludes. The CCPOA is spearheading a political and economic strategy that will lead California into an abyss.

But perhaps this is the only direction that may lead to eventual social and economic justice. The prospects for evolutionary shifts to the left grow dimmer and dimmer. Perhaps it is only after the state drives itself into an abyss that a radical revolutionary shift can take place. That remains to be seen.

With the recently lifted limit on banked vacation days, it's not that uncommon for a California prison guard to retire at 55 with a $300,000 payout for banked vacation days and, by hoovering up overtime in the last few years of employment, $150,000 a year, plus cost-of-living-increases above the inflation rate, for the rest of his life. If you're a sociopath or have no problems turning into one, there really is no easier path to becoming a millionaire.

Edited June 30, 2013 by leviramsey

[peterms]

I see the growth in numbers in private prisons is disproportionately in federal prisons.

 

Lobbying by anyone to profit from the imprisonment of others is corrupt.  But why mention only the lobbying of the unions?  The private companies spend a lot on this.

 

 

There's an interesting Guardian article on US prisons here.  I hadn't realised the extent of free labour involved in the system - some of the comments liken it to a replacement for the large free labour supply represented by slavery.

 

 

 

[AVFCforever1991]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/apr/05/angola-three-louisiana

 

 

Louisiana State Penitentiary, it's a prison farm...

 

This look familiar?

 

[leviramsey]

Lobbying by anyone to profit from the imprisonment of others is corrupt.  But why mention only the lobbying of the unions?  The private companies spend a lot on this.

The spending by the private companies is in all probability well exceeded by the spending by the unions.

ProPublica reports (per the link in my earlier post):

CCA spent $17.4 million on lobbying over the past 10 years, plus another $1.9 million in campaign contributions, while the other member of the private prison duopoly, GEO, spent $2.5 million and $2.9 million over more or less the same period, so call it $2.5 million a year.

The California union, operating in just one state, has averaged about $3.5 million a year in lobbying and political contributions (another $3 million or so a year is spent on what the union terms "other political activities"... all told about a third of that union's $22 million annual dues are spent on political activities).

[peterms]

 

Lobbying by anyone to profit from the imprisonment of others is corrupt.  But why mention only the lobbying of the unions?  The private companies spend a lot on this.

The spending by the private companies is in all probability well exceeded by the spending by the unions.

ProPublica reports (per the link in my earlier post):

CCA spent $17.4 million on lobbying over the past 10 years, plus another $1.9 million in campaign contributions, while the other member of the private prison duopoly, GEO, spent $2.5 million and $2.9 million over more or less the same period, so call it $2.5 million a year.

The California union, operating in just one state, has averaged about $3.5 million a year in lobbying and political contributions (another $3 million or so a year is spent on what the union terms "other political activities"... all told about a third of that union's $22 million annual dues are spent on political activities).

 

 

I wouldn't defend for a moment people lobbying to have others imprisoned, especially in the US prison system, which sounds about on a par with Burma or Uzbekhistan.  It's completely morally indefensible, and when done for personal gain, corrupt as well.

 

In the UK we have some very dodgy people in the trade unions (or staff associations, more like) of bodies like the Prison Officers Association.  They seem to attract nazis, racists, and other authoritarian scumbags.  I think it's the uniform.  A spot of dressing up, being nasty to black people, and getting paid as well!  Lovely!

 

But we tend to view them as representative of right-wing scumbags, rather than trade unionism.  That's because most unions not only don't share, but actively oppose, their outlook.

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

They really are doing their best to piss off the entire world, aren't they?

[AVFCforever1991]

They really are doing their best to piss off the entire world, aren't they?

 

Nothing has changed then...

[Dr_Pangloss]

They really are doing their best to piss off the entire world, aren't they?

...and then they wonder why the world hates them.

[leviramsey]

In the UK we have some very dodgy people in the trade unions (or staff associations, more like) of bodies like the Prison Officers Association.  They seem to attract nazis, racists, and other authoritarian scumbags.  I think it's the uniform.  A spot of dressing up, being nasty to black people, and getting paid as well!  Lovely!

Are you familiar with the Stanford Prison Experiment... it would seem to indicate that it's the presence of hierarchy which turns people into authoritarian scumbags; this is on top of the self-selection effect that arises from those with authoritarian tendencies seeking such positions.