A few months ago I read a book titled "Slavery by another name" by Douglas A. Blackmon which detailed how institutional racism in the Post-Confederate South created a system of Neo-Slavery that allowed the exploitation of labor without liberty based on racial prejudice to continue in much of the U.S.A. until the middle of the 20th century.
Neoslavery was the practice of abducting African Americans, and/or imprisoning them based on exaggerated or false criminal charges, and forcing them into servitude long after the days of the Civil War that supposedly put an end to such practices. As the subtitle of his book indicates, the practice basically constituted "The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II." Blackmon maintains that the practice was particularly prominent in the states of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Moreover, the "free" labor it provided was utilized by a number of corporations and allowed them to become some of the wealthiest and most powerful in modern U.S. history.
redroom.com
More below the fold . . .
Crossposted at The Progressive Electorate.com
So, who can name a state in 2010 that has privatized prisons and is trying to criminalize people based on race?
If you guessed Arizona, you guessed correctly.
For his work on "Slavery by another name", Mr. Blackmon won a Pulitzer Prize.
With Mr. Blackmon's work in mind, I read a brilliant diary on DKos yesterday titled Killers escape privatized prison, and kill again , and that set the wheels in my brain turning.
So, here is my question to you?
How is a Privatized Prison any different from a Slave Plantation?
In both a privatized prison and a slave plantation both of these facts are true . . .
Fact 1. You are not allowed to leave
Fact 2. Someone else is profiting on your imprisonment and lack of liberty
So, can anyone tell me the difference between a privatized, for profit prison and a slave plantation? Because they seem to work on the EXACT same principle.
In Arizona, in my opinion, it seems that the proposed criminalization of Brown Skinned People (AZ. S.B.1070) and the rise of Privatized Prisons (who are large contributors to GOP Gov. Jan Brewer) is no accident. Obviously, the incentive to get "tough on crime" has an added profit motive when privately owned prisons can lobby local politicians with donations to be tougher on crime, a recipe that will surely bring in new inmates, and new profits.
Remember the scene from "The Shawshank Redemption" where the warden takes a bribe from a local contractor who can not compete for contracts when the prison underbids them with their cheap prison labor?
Well, here is my question, phrased differently . . .
How is a private prison different from a slave plantation, considering that both institutions deprive a person of their liberty while exploiting them for a profit?
Anyone? Anyone? Buehler?
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