Closing prisons and reducing the incarcerated population should be a good thing, but when local economies become dependent on the prison industry it creates many perverse incentives for keeping our inhumane system of mass incarceration going. Residents of Susanville, California, are experiencing this firsthand after the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced the impending deactivation of the California Correctional Center. In this episode of Rattling the Bars, Charles Hopkins, better known as Mansa Musa, is joined by Nicole D. Porter to discuss the prison closure in Susanville and how expanding the prison-industrial complex is neither a just nor viable method for reviving local economies.
Nicole D. Porter is the Senior Director of Advocacy at The Sentencing Project, managing state and local advocacy efforts on sentencing reform, voting rights, and eliminating racial disparities in the criminal justice system. Her advocacy has supported criminal justice reforms in several states including Kentucky, Missouri, and California. Porter was named a “New Civil Rights Leader” by Essence Magazine for her work to eliminate mass incarceration.
Pre-Production/Studio/Post-Production: Cameron Granadino
Read the transcript of this episode: https://therealnews.com/stop-trying-to-revive-local-economies-with-prisons
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** (Disclaimer: This video content is intended for educational and informational purposes only) **
Rural prisons gives rural voters extra voting power because the people in the prison count as population, but don't get to vote.
It's past time to solve the social problems that cause crime forcing people into underground economies, forcing people to steal to feed families and then locking them in cages is inhumane. We have so many people who plead guilty to things they did not do. The corrupt systems that make up the criminal injustice system can never be reformed. There is a reason that black and brown people and poor people are targeted.
Prison Labor Money should benifit the prison programs & quality of life inside the prison.
I'm fine with prison labor used as punishment but I'm not fine when it benefits private corporations instead of a government base corporation…… If the money or benefits from the prison labor goes to private company there's no guarantee that would be passed on to us in fact there's pretty much no way it's going to be passed on to us but on the other hand if the government does it there's a big chance that could pass on to us
I'm fine with prison labor used as punishment but I'm not fine when it benefits private corporations instead of a government base corporation……
The federal budget that was used for prisons is reparations money.
My home town Greenfield California, a State prison 8 miles away in Soledad is in a agriculture valley. There is no need for expansion of the prison for jobs.
But it has expanded where it looks like it’s own city.
This explains why the crime rate has escalated and why public schools encourage gangs.
Excellent interview
Unions are not an entity of a Republic government.
These economies need not fear. Yesterday in his Union address, it appears our damn President Biden just doubled down on his Committed to keeping funding the police. He'll provide the necessary grist for incarceration mill. But he also sealed his doom at the poles.
So we shut the prison down and we now have two options: (1) overcrowd other prisons, (2) release criminals (now mostly violent these days) back into YOUR neighborhood. Newsom chose option #2. Don't complain of rising crime rates when it happens.
Sadly, there is no profit in well-being.
I don’t know what you expect? Government – control mind. Politicians pass policy written by corporations who need policy to benefit them. If you do not cooperate with corporations, the police will be there to deal with you. We live in a police state. Duh!
Lawfare
We are all women and men. All women and men have civil rights.
The damage has already been done………………small communities succumbed to the push for a new law enforcement complex. Retired police promote new criminal justice centers as profitable for the community. These new criminal justice centers depend on income from the counties where they reside even tho the reasoning is that these local prisons relieve the pressure on building new prisons by accepting prisoners from the state for reimbursement. These new centers increase local law enforcement personnel from as few as single digits up to 100, creating pressure on affordable housing. The entire personality of the community changes.
Before It's News
March 1 2022
MEL K &THE GREAT BENJAMIN FULFORD ON TODAY'S GEO POLITICAL MOVES &COUNTER MOVES
You are all delusional if you be believe "Decarceration" becomes a permanent reality.
The sad reality is…
If and when mass technological unemployment via automation and A.I. decimate countless jobs and professions.
As the amount of new jobs created never offset the amount destroyed.
It will spawn decades of social unrest and souring violent crime rates.
In the end.
We will be forced to deal with a large pissed off, permanently unemployable obsolete workforce in addition to hordes of feral teens roaming the streets. Lest the chaos and havoc spread all over the place.
The prison industrial complex will make a big comeback.
Especially as it becomes an unavoidable cost of doing business.
I lived in lassen county for about 5 years. That prison was definitely the tail that wagged the dog.
Arrests were made based on occupancy. Got full, they'd release unrehabilitated repeat offending scum. And avoid arresting them again, until population dropped.
They jailed people with ironclad alibis for years while awaiting trial.
Ain't no justice in lassen county. Visit a smaller town (Westwood) in lassen county on a nice summer afternoon and you'll see a half dozen violations of the law just on the main street.
The deputy assigned that area, chilling at the city building or his in town house right there on the main street.
I think it was Heff, deputy Heff. I always called him heffer, since he was heavyset even 10 years ago. Only tickets you if you can pay it.
The futur looks bright when you have an economy based on prisons industrial complex which lead to overpolicing and injustice, military industrial complex and military bases which lead to a "need" for military conflicts and fossil fuels which lead to climate change.
Look at German prisons , education , mental health , real world jobs training and placement !
Thank you wonderful woman Nicole !
I live in one of these types of towns…smfh. 4 state jails, 1 fed, 1 county and a now closed vacant youth facility. It's absolutely ridiculous. Turn over is horrible. Conditions abysmal. It's not worth the jobs. 😡