Blog Archive

Monday, February 13, 2023

02-13-2023-0252 - WWII Europe {Slavery, Medieval, Norman Conquest, Saint Patrick, Pope Zachary, Eurasia, etc.}

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_of_World_War_II_in_Europe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Europe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_medieval_Europe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hywel_Dda

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_conquest_of_England

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_conquest_of_England

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Zachary


The Mongol invasions and conquests in the 13th century added a new force in the slave trade. The Mongols enslaved skilled individuals, women and children and marched them to Karakorum or Sarai, whence they were sold throughout Eurasia. Many of these slaves were shipped to the slave market in Novgorod.[42][43][44] 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_medieval_Europe

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manumission

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Negroes

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_labor_in_the_United_States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison%E2%80%93industrial_complex

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prison


Private immigration prisons

Further information: Immigration detention in Australia

Several Australian immigration prisons are privately operated, including the Nauru Regional Processing Centre which is located on the pacific island country of Nauru and operated by Broadspectrum on behalf of the Australian Government, with security sub-contracted to Wilson Security.[7] Immigration prisons typically hold people who have overstayed or lack a visa, or otherwise broken the terms of their visas.[8] Some, such as the facility on Nauru, hold asylum seekers, refugees and even young children who can be detained indefinitely. In many cases people have been detained for years without charge or trial.[9][10] This, as well as poor conditions, neglect,[11] harsh treatment[12] and deaths[13] in some of the centers, has been the source of controversy in Australia and internationally. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prison

 

United States

See also: Incarceration in the United States § Privatization, and Prison–industrial complex

Private prisons are operated in the United States of America. In 2018, 8.41% of prisoners in the United States were housed in private prisons.[46] On January 25, 2021, President Joe Biden issued an executive order to stop the United States Department of Justice from renewing further contracts with private prisons. As most facilities are run by their respective states, the order only will apply to small fraction of private prisoners, about 14,000 inmates housed in federal prisons.[47]

Early history

The privatization of prisons can be traced to the contracting out of confinement and care of prisoners after the American Revolution. Deprived of the ability to ship criminals and undesirables to the Colonies, Great Britain began placing them on hulks (used as prison ships) moored in English ports.[48]

In 1852, on the northwest San Francisco Bay in California, inmates of the prison ship Waban began building a contract facility to house themselves at Point Quentin. The prison became known as San Quentin, which is still in operation today. Its partial transfer of prison administration from private to public did not mark the end of privatization.[49]

The next phase began with the Reconstruction Period (1865–1876) in the south, after the end of the Civil War. Plantations and businessmen needed to find replacements for the labor force once their slaves had been freed. In 1865, the United States ratified the 13th Amendment, which abolished all forms of slavery "except as punishment for a crime". This exception allowed plantation owners and businessmen to find the unpaid labor they desired. Beginning in 1868, convict leases were issued to private parties to supplement their workforce.[50][51] This system remained in place until the early 20th century.

Development

1980s–2009

Federal and state governments have a long history of contracting out specific services to private firms, including medical services, food preparation, vocational training, and inmate transportation. However, the 1980s ushered in a new era of prison privatization. With a burgeoning prison population resulting from the War on Drugs and increased use of incarceration, prison overcrowding and rising costs became increasingly problematic for local, state, and federal governments. In response to this expanding criminal justice system, private business interests saw an opportunity for expansion, and consequently, private-sector involvement in prisons moved from the simple contracting of services to contracting for the complete management and operation of entire prisons.[52]

The modern private prison business first emerged and established itself publicly in 1984 when the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), now known as CoreCivic, was awarded a contract to take over operation of a facility in Shelby County, Tennessee. This marked the first time that any government in the country had contracted out the complete operation of a jail to a private operator.[53] The following year, CCA gained further public attention when it offered to take over the entire state prison system of Tennessee for $200 million. The bid was ultimately defeated due to strong opposition from public employees and the skepticism of the state legislature.[54] Despite that initial defeat, CCA since then has successfully expanded, as have other for-profit prison companies.

CCA's $52 million January 1997 purchase of Washington, D.C.'s $100 million Central Treatment Facility was "the first time a prison has been sold outright (although under a lease-back arrangement, ownership is supposed to revert to D.C. after 20 years)."[55]

2010s

Statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice show that, as of 2019, there were 116,000 state and federal prisoners housed in privately owned prisons in the U.S., constituting 8.1% of the overall U.S. prison population. Broken down to prison type, 15.7% of the federal prison population in the United States is housed in private prisons and 7.1% of the U.S. state prison population is housed in private prisons.[56]

As of 2017, after a period of steady growth, the number of inmates held in private prisons in the United States has declined modestly and continues to represent a small share of the nation's total prison population.[57] Companies operating such facilities include the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the GEO Group, Inc. (formerly known as Wackenhut Securities), Management and Training Corporation (MTC), and Community Education Centers. In the past two decades CCA has seen its profits increase by more than 500 percent.[citation needed] The prison industry as a whole took in over $5 billion in revenue in 2011.[58]

According to journalist Matt Taibbi, Wall Street banks took notice of this influx of cash, and are now some of the prison industry's biggest investors. Wells Fargo has around $100 million invested in GEO Group and $6 million in CCA. Other major investors include Bank of America, Fidelity Investments, General Electric and The Vanguard Group. CCA's share price went from a dollar in 2000 to $34.34 in 2013.[58] Sociologist John L. Campbell and activist and journalist Chris Hedges respectively assert that prisons in the United States have become a "lucrative" and "hugely profitable" business.[59][60]

In June 2013, students at Columbia University discovered that the institution owned $8 million worth of CCA stock. Less than a year later, students formed a group called Columbia Prison Divest, and delivered a letter to the president of the University demanding total divestment from CCA and full disclosure of future investments.[61] By June 2015, the board of trustees at Columbia University voted to divest from the private prison industry.[62]

CoreCivic (previously CCA) has a capacity of more than 80,000 beds in 65 correctional facilities. The GEO Group operates 57 facilities with a capacity of 49,000 offender beds.[63] The company owns or runs more than 100 properties that operate more than 73,000 beds in sites across the world.[64]

Most privately run facilities are located in the southern and western portions of the United States and include both state and federal offenders.[65] For example, Pecos, Texas is the site of the largest private prison in the world, the Reeves County Detention Complex, operated by the GEO Group.[66] It has a capacity of 3,763 prisoners in its three sub-complexes,[67]

Private prison firms, reacting to reductions in prison populations, are increasingly looking away from mere incarceration and are seeking to maintain profitability by expanding into new markets previously served by non-profit behavioral health and treatment-oriented agencies, including prison medical care, forensic mental hospitals, civil commitment centers, halfway houses and home arrest.[68][69][70]

A 2016 report by the U.S. Department of Justice asserts that privately operated federal facilities are less safe, less secure and more punitive than other federal prisons.[71] Shortly thereafter, the DoJ announced it will stop using private prisons.[72] Nevertheless, a month later the Department of Homeland Security renewed a controversial contract with the CCA to continue operating the South Texas Family Residential Center, an immigrant detention facility in Dilley, Texas.[73]

Stock prices for CCA and GEO Group surged following Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 elections.[74][75] On February 23, the DOJ under Attorney General Jeff Sessions overturned the ban on using private prisons. According to Sessions, "the (Obama administration) memorandum changed long-standing policy and practice, and impaired the bureau's ability to meet the future needs of the federal correctional system. Therefore, I direct the bureau to return to its previous approach."[76] Additionally, both CCA and GEO Group have been expanding into the immigrant detention market. Although the combined revenues of CCA and GEO Group were about $4 billion in 2017 from private prison contracts, their number one customer was ICE.[77]

Impact

According to a 2021 study, private prison inmates serve longer time in prison than comparable inmates in public prisons.[78]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prison

 

Media coverage in the United States

Documentary

Drama

  • Kids for Cash scandal has also led to several portrayals in fictional works. Both the Law & Order: SVU episode "Crush" and an episode of The Good Wife featured corrupt judges sending children to private detention centers. An episode of Cold Case titled "Jurisprudence" is loosely based on this event.[147][148][149]
  • Season 3 of Orange Is the New Black portrays the transformation of the prison from federally owned to a privately owned prison for-profit.
  • An episode of Elementary focuses on private prisons competing with each other in New Jersey to win a bid for another prison.
  • An episode of Boston Legal sees a 15-year-old former inmate suing a private prison over an alleged rape by one of its corrections officers.[150]

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prison

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_abolition_movement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extermination_camp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_site

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner_of_conscience

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner_of_war

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostage

 

 

By at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)