Private Prison Company Affiliated With US Chamber Conducts Drug Raids at Public Schools

[dixiegrrrrl]

An unsettling trend appears to be underway in Arizona: the use of private prison employees in law enforcement operations.
Vista Grande High School Principal Tim Hamilton ordered the school -- with a student population of 1,776 -- on "lock down," kicking off the first "drug sweep" in the school's four-year history. According to Hamilton, "lock down" is a state in which, "everybody is locked in the room they are in, and nobody leaves -- nobody leaves the school, nobody comes into the school."

While such "drug sweeps" have become a routine matter in many of the nation's schools, along with the use of metal detectors and zero-tolerance policies, one feature of this raid was unusual. According to Casa Grande Police Department (CGPD) Public Information Officer Thomas Anderson,

four "law enforcement agencies" took part in the operation: CGPD (which served as the lead agency and operation coordinator), the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the Gila River Indian Community Police Department, and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).

It is the involvement of CCA -- the nation's largest private, for-profit prison corporation -- that causes this high school "drug sweep" to stand out as unusual; CCA is not, despite CGPD's evident opinion to the contrary, a law enforcement agency.

"To invite for-profit prison guards to conduct law enforcement actions in a high school is perhaps the most direct expression of the 'schools-to-prison pipeline' I've ever seen," said Caroline Isaacs, program director of the Tucson office of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker social justice organization that advocates for criminal justice reform.

http://shutthechamber.org/news/prwatch-private-prison-company-affiliated-us-chamber-conducts-drug-raids-public-schools

don't know about you, but not only would I take my kid out of that school, I would find a lawyer.

[villager]

1. That principle needs to be tarred and feathered.

(Metaphorically speaking, of course).

Instead, I'm sure a job awaits him with the for-profit jailers.

[green for victory]

2. drug sweeps while kids are prescribed drugs that are the common link in shootings

insanity rules the day

[Drale]

3. They did one random drug raid on our lockers in my high school

and everyone protested it by not keeping anything in their lockers and just carrying all their books around with them. All that was in peoples lockers for like 6 weeks after that failed attempt to incriminate people were peoples coats.

[Newest Reality]

4. Race to the top

of the prison gang and all children left behind ... bars.

Private prisons are a bad disease that is spreading and is always a symptom of profit and the marriage of corporations and state. It's like and STD.

It's coming for you and your kids. I don't mean that to be sensational. It is too irresistible and already deeply entrenched. Our incarceration rates are bad enough by comparison. Without putting some checks and measures on the private prison industry, we have nothing good to look forward to.

[Lasher]

5. Blackwater in NOLA

Baldwin-Felts at the Battle of Blair Mountain

Law enforcement for sale, literally. We have a long legacy of such arrangements.

[PETRUS]

6. USA! USA! USA!

[A Simple Game]

14. Is there anything bad that didn't start when Reagan was president? n/t

[frylock]

21. the west coast punk rock scene?

[PETRUS]

30. ...

[summerschild]

32. Oh, is that the guy who started the War on Drugs?

Look at when that chart takes off!

[marcusc81]

15. Home of the free land of the incarcerated

[amb123]

7. Harvesting our Public Schools for kids to fill up their jails! Great profits to be made here!

Damn disgusting is what it is!

[HiPointDem]

8. kr

[duhneece]

9. Sickening & shameful nt

[Initech]

10. For profit prisons: a symptom of a truly sick country.

You lock up the petty offenders while the real criminals walk free.

[WillyT]

11. K & R !!!

[libodem]

12. Are we in the Soviet Union or what?

This makes me nauseous and faint at the same time. Sickening. Frightening. Abusive.

[bvar22]

13. If this were a Democracy, "Private Prisons" would NOT be tolerated.

Other things that would NOT be tolerated in a Democracy:

*Armed Private Military Contractors (Mercenaries)

*Private Voting Machines running "secret" code

*Private administration of Public Parks and Lands

*Private "Intelligence Gathering & Collating" agencies

*Private Schools (including Universities) subsidized with Public Money

*Private Health Insurance Corporations subsidized with Public Money

[synapticwave]

16. For profit prisons *could* be a good thing

If we make a subtle change.

Currently, prisons charge people at flat rate for their stay. Allow (or require) prisons to start charging rates commensurate with a person's income. Let's say 10% of their earning potential for any given time period. So If I make $50K/year and go to prison for a year, I get charged $5000. If Rmoney makes $22M/year and goes to prison for a year the prison charges $2.2M.

Let's make that change, and then we'll see who the 4profit prisons go after.

[MindPilot]

20. Ummm, no.

Law enforcement should not have a profit motive. Period.
The person who makes 50K is FAR more likely to be charged and actually end up in prison than the person making $22M. The person making $50K--even if they are innocent--will most likely be forced into making a deal with the prosecutor simply because they do not have the resources to mount a defense. (And THAT is true of a vast majority of people in federal prison--federal prosecutors go to trial in less than 2% of their convictions; about 98% are plea-bargained.)

[synapticwave]

22. sorry

guess I needed this

New here, don't know how obvious things are to people

[eShirl]

27. well, it's just that we get rightwing trolls from time to time

and even a few longtime posters with "unique" opinions
lol

[azurnoir]

17. so are these private prison companies being paid

for piece work? The more students rounded up the more they're paid or is the reward for these companies in the profit of incarcerating kids?

This sounds more than a bit like abuse to me

[woo me with science]

18. The Obama administration is aggressively growing private prisons

through appointments and federal contracts. And the corporations are rolling in the profits.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=edit&forum=1002&thread=2568681

Obama's 2013 budget: One area of marked growth, the prison industrial complex
http://sync.democraticunderground.com/1002392306

Obama selects the owner of a private prison consulting firm as the new Director of the United States Marshals Service (USMS)
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2010/12/mars-d03.html

Private prison corporations move up on list on federal contractors, receiving BILLIONS
http://www.nationofchange.org/president-obama-s-incarcernation-1335274655

"Since President Obama’s first day in office the Corrections Corporation of America and The GEO Group have been awarded $1.7 and 1.8 billion dollars in federal contracts, respectively. And beginning in October 2011 the Corrections Corporation of America has taken its place as the government’s top contractor whereas the GEO Group comfortably maintains the third-place position. Finally, according to USAspending, over one-quarter of private prison contracts have been established under “non-compete” agreements."

Prison Labor Booms As Unemployment Remains High; Companies Reap Benefits
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/10/prison-labor_n_2272036.html


Financial growth of the private prison industry:

[dixiegrrrrl]

29. "owner of a private prison consulting firm as Director of the United States Marshals Service"

I had missed that one.
Thanks so much for posting the info.

[DollarBillHines]

19. Casa Grande - 'Big House'

How ironic is that?

[malaise]

23. They need prisoners for their business

These scumbags sanction slavery by any means and that is what this war on drugs is about.

[Union Scribe]

24. Private law enforcement sending us to their private prisons.

I think that's called breaking and entering and kidnapping.

[eShirl]

25. trolling for new "clients"

[fredamae]

26. This is but one

reason Why the WoD's Must End----
Harm Reduction Ed Works (see falling rates of tobacco over the past couple decades for proof)-It's Cheaper and doesn't terrorize our kids.

[cbrer]

28. Members of the 1%

Will have their own private armies before long. With a healthy profit coming from their stock holdings in private prisons.

A blind man can see where this is headed. We will have to live under the limit of enslavement that we're willing to tolerate.

How far will it go before we revolt?

How deeply will we be divided (by careful planning) when that day comes?

[ohheckyeah]

31. The rate of incarceration in this country is

something that really should be a major issue. The prisons for profit are a disgrace and shouldn't be tolerated in a "free" society.

There was a special on 20/20 on one of those shows about a young black man in Tucson, AZ who was arrested for arson back in the early 70s....there was no evidence the fire was caused by arson. He was recently released from prison after spending 40 years incarcerated for something he didn't do.

Here's a question I would like for our leaders to answer: Why are so many Americans per capita in jail? Are we that much worse than the people in other countries?

[Vinnie From Indy]

33. Here in Indiana, Gov. Mike Pence is working hard for his private prison

buddies. One of his first acts as Gov. has been to have his lackeys in the Statehouse revise a bill that originally would have lowered penalties on marijuana possession to something much different. The revisions drastically increased the penalties and lowered the amount of weed needed to be charged with a felony. Here is the kicker! The new revisions would mandate that 75% of sentences be served.

GEO Group out of Florida dropped a bundle of cash on the Pence For Governor Campaign and now Mike is delivering the goods. The goods of course being citizens of Indiana for GEO Group's brand spanking new prison a few miles outside Indy.

It's all so fucking evil.