We have often talked here about the American gulag -- not the far-flung prisons and "intense interrogation" chambers of the global militarist empire, where tens of thousands of captives languish, often without the slightest pretense of even a modicum of rights or legal process -- but the countless human holding pens that glut the highways and byways of the sacred Homeland itself, where not thousands but literally millions of people are incarcerated in a brutal system of retribution, abuse and moral atrocity: a system increasingly geared to corporate profit; a seedbed and training ground for gangs and extremists; a breaker and stigmatizer of generation after generation of Americans.

Yes, once again, the latest annual rankings of the world's prison population are in, and, once again, 2008 found the good old US of A the winners by a country mile. No other nation in the world comes close to imprisoning more of its own people -- not in terms of raw numbers or by proportion of the population.

As the Economist reports, the United States now has some 2,300,000 of its citizens behind bars -- or a whopping 756 out of every 100,000 people. China is the closest in sheer numbers, with 1,600,000 people locked up; but that's in a population more than four times larger than the United States, and in a state that is unashamedly authoritarian, as opposed to the incessantly self-proclaimed "land of the free." The closest competitor in proportion of caged citizens is Russia, with 629 per 100,000, and a hefty 800,000+ behind bars.

After these three "great powers," the numbers drop off considerably. No one can even make half a million, not even teeming Brazil or even-more teeming India, which incarcerates a mere 33 out of every 100,000 of its people. Iran -- which as we know is the center of all demonic Islamofascist terrorist barbarian evil in the whole wide world -- doesn't even have 200,000 of its people locked up.

It goes without saying that effete hellholes like France or Spain or Germany or Sweden or Canada don't even make the Economist's list of the Top 14. Nor does any nation in Africa -- with the exception of South Africa, with its long, proud lineage of colonial jurisprudence. (Even so, the South Africans are pikers compared to the Great Powers -- although they are ahead of Iran.) Nor does Burma, North Korea, Sudan -- or any Arab country -- make the list.

It is truly astonishing that any nation that dares call itself "civilized" would have such a sweeping, punitive prison system. But this is just one of many shocking facts that no longer trouble the American conscience, which has been both deliberately and incidentally deadened by decades of empire, aggression, brutality and lies. It is also the mark of a deeply racist culture that has sought -- again both deliberately and unconsciously -- to punish, repress and break vast swathes of its own population: namely, its African-American citizens, the descendants of the people the nation once enslaved. (Can it be any accident that the first black president of the United States is not only half-white, but is also not descended from American slaves? He is not really, you see, one of them: those dark Others who have lived among us for so long as repositories for the white folks' guilt and fears.)

The viral growth of the American punishment system is, of course, a hardy perennial for the very, very few people who give even the slightest damn about it. As I said, I've written about it for several years, as the new annual stats issue forth. Last year, Arthur Silber trained his considerable firepower on the subject, when a study revealed that not only were one in every 100 American adults now behind bars, but one out of every nine black males between the ages of 20 and 34 are now incarcerated. Silber noted the fact that "a high proportion of prisoners are non-violent drug offenders," and went on to say:

You see, in the liberty-loving United States of America, your body does not belong to you. Surrender your delusion that you are an autonomous being, free to choose what to ingest for sustenance or entertainment. It is of no moment that you do not violate anyone else's rights. What matters is that you recognize your body belongs to the state. If you fail to follow the state's edicts as to how you must treat your body, off to prison you will go. All of this is trebly true if you are such a miserable being as to have failed to be born into the privileged class -- that is to say, if you are not affluent, white and male. (With regard to distinct but related issues, women obviously are also such miserable beings.)

We must note one further fact of immense significance. As I discussed in several essays from a few years ago, the prison system in the United States represents nothing less than the institutionalization of brutality and torture on a vast scale. (See "'They Don't Represent America'? Not Quite, Mr. President," "The Real Scandal," and the other essays listed here under the heading, "About Prison Abuse and Torture in the U.S., and in Iraq.") That system embodies the depravity and degradation of extreme cruelty to a degree that is close to ungraspable, and it corrupts everyone who works in it, as it corrupts our nation. When is the last time you heard the horrors of the U.S. prison system -- including not only the non-crimes for which hundreds of thousands are incarcerated, but the cruelties that are inflicted on them when they are unjustly imprisoned -- debated seriously and at length by our major politicians, including the leading candidates for president? That's right: you can't remember, because it doesn't happen.

You should read the whole piece, and the links to the abovementioned essays, which you will find in the original post.

Earlier this year we ran a long, detailed piece on how the private profits of an elite, politically connected few are helping drive the continued explosion in the American prison population. The piece centered on the long-running garden-variety corruption and backroom grease of one Lamar Alexander -- the feckless frat boy and Bush family factotum who now disgraces the state of Tennessee as its "senior U.S. senator." This article was apparently eaten in the latest hack job on this blog, but you can find it at one of our affiliated sites, Pacific Free Press: Prisons, Profits, and the Banality of Evil.

Lamar was instrumental in the founding of the private prison industry, with his lucrative presence as the creation of the Corrections Corporation of America. But here I want to focus on some of the general background info from that earlier essay, taken from an analysis of America's private prisons by Global Research:

Private prisons are the biggest business in the prison industry complex. About 18 corporations guard 10,000 prisoners in 27 states. The two largest are Correctional Corporation of America (CCA) and Wackenhut, which together control 75%. Private prisons receive a guaranteed amount of money for each prisoner, independent of what it costs to maintain each one. According to Russell Boraas, a private prison administrator in Virginia, "the secret to low operating costs is having a minimal number of guards for the maximum number of prisoners." The CCA has an ultra-modern prison in Lawrenceville, Virginia, where five guards on dayshift and two at night watch over 750 prisoners. In these prisons, inmates may get their sentences reduced for "good behavior," but for any infraction, they get 30 days added - which means more profits for CCA. According to a study of New Mexico prisons, it was found that CCA inmates lost "good behavior time" at a rate eight times higher than those in state prisons....

Who is investing? At least 37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations that mount their operations inside state prisons. The list of such companies contains the cream of U.S. corporate society: IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nordstrom's, Revlon, Macy's, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, and many more. All of these businesses are excited about the economic boom generation by prison labor. Just between 1980 and 1994, profits went up from $392 million to $1.31 billion. Inmates in state penitentiaries generally receive the minimum wage for their work, but not all; in Colorado, they get about $2 per hour, well under the minimum. And in privately-run prisons, they receive as little as 17 cents per hour for a maximum of six hours a day, the equivalent of $20 per month. The highest-paying private prison is CCA in Tennessee, where prisoners receive 50 cents per hour for what they call "highly skilled positions."

....Thanks to prison labor, the United States is once again an attractive location for investment in work that was designed for Third World labor markets. A company that operated a maquiladora (assembly plant in Mexico near the border) closed down its operations there and relocated to San Quentin State Prison in California. In Texas, a factory fired its 150 workers and contracted the services of prisoner-workers from the private Lockhart Texas prison, where circuit boards are assembled for companies like IBM and Compaq...[Former] Oregon State Representative Kevin Mannix recently urged Nike to cut its production in Indonesia and bring it to his state, telling the shoe manufacturer that "there won't be any transportation costs; we're offering you competitive prison labor (here)."

As I said, I have been writing, sporadically, on this national shame for many years. I'll close with an excerpt from a piece I wrote back in 2006:

[Although the prison population has risen dramatically during the Bush administration] Bush is merely standing on the shoulders of giants – such as, say, Bill Clinton, who once created 50 brand-new federal offenses in a single draconian measure, and expanded the federal death penalty to 60 new offenses during his term. In fact, like the great cathedrals of old, the building of Fortress America has been the work of decades, with an entire society yoked to the common task. At each step, the promulgation of ever-more draconian punishments for ever-lesser offenses, and the criminalization of ever-broader swathes of ordinary human behavior, have been greeted with hosannahs from a public and press who seem to be insatiable gluttons for punishment – someone else's punishment, that is, and preferably someone of dusky hue...The main engine of this mass incarceration has been the 35-year "war on drugs": a spurious battle against an abstract noun that provides an endless fount of profits, payoffs and power for the politically connected while only worsening the problem it purports to address – just like the "war on terror." The "war on drugs" has in fact been the most effective assault on an underclass since Stalin's campaign against the kulaks...   It was launched by Richard Nixon, after urban unrest had shaken major American cities during those famous "long, hot summers" of the Sixties. Yet even as the crackdowns began, America's inner cities were being flooded with heroin, much of it originating in Southeast Asia, where the CIA and its hired warlords ran well-funded black ops in and around Vietnam. At home, criminal gangs reaped staggering riches from the criminalization of the natural, if often unhealthy, human craving for intoxication. Ronald Reagan upped the ante in the 1980s, with a rash of "mandatory sentencing" laws that can put even first-time, small-time offenders away for years. His term also saw a new flood -- crack cocaine – devastating the inner cities, even as his covert operators used drug money to fund the terrorist Contra army in Nicaragua and run illegal weapons to Iran, while the downtown druglords grew more powerful. The American underclass was caught in a classic pincer movement, attacked by both the state and the gangs. There were no more "long, hot summers" of protest against injustice; there was simply the struggle to survive...  Under Reagan, Bush I and Clinton, the feverish privatization of the prison system added a new impetus for wholesale, long-term detention. Politically-wired corporations need to keep those profit-making cells filled, and the politicians they grease are happy to oblige with "tougher" sentences and new crimes to prosecute.

...A nation's true values can be measured in how it treats the poor, the weak, the damaged, the unconnected. For more than 30 years, the answer of the American power structure has been clear: you lock them up, you shut them up, you grind them down – and make big bucks in the process.

Comments (22)

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scott douglas said:

	... One of my furious focus points -- mass imprisonment in the USA. Gosh, how do they count those dudes in the unemployment figures...oh...they don't? hmmmm....
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August 04, 2009
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MandT said:

	... Excellent article....about time more came forth concerning America's police state. The only other journalist/author of note writing on this subject has been Paul Craig Roberts over at Counterpunch...good work!
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August 05, 2009 | url
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Lou Jellyfinger said:

	... That is exactly why drugs will never be legal. Makes a guy proud to live in the land of the free and the home of the bestest police force in the whole wide world.
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August 05, 2009
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SomeoneIonceKnew said:

	... Great article as always Chris. What's left of the left needs more of this sort of passionate commentary. The powers that be use it and mere factial arguments don't sway the teeming masses. We need to be more emotive and even emotional.
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August 05, 2009
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John Dangereaux said:

	... How true! I have a friend that hadn't dealt drugs(weed) in a few years. The feds got someone to confess to the operation. Now my friend who had been a productive member of society- he was a carpenter and had a good job- is going to federal prison camp for 6 years!! Unfortunately, after the storming of the Bastille, we know what happened next! We got to get these people out!
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August 05, 2009
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William Benedict said:

	Police-Courts-Prison one industry that needs fresh orders always The Cops, the Lawyers, Judges, and Prisons are a self-perpetuating industry that needs more fuel constantly to keep it going. The situation is hopeless. I did a year for selling "drug paraphernalia" and met so many men that should not be there, but are for the next 10,20, 30 or more years it is ridiculous!
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August 05, 2009
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Aditya said:

	UK report: Torture Inc. Americas Brutal Prisons This is a report by British Channel 4 on the US's prisons: http://www.informationclearing...le8451.htm Torture Inc. Americas Brutal Prisons Savaged by dogs, Electrocuted With Cattle Prods, Burned By Toxic Chemicals, Does such barbaric abuse inside U.S. jails explain the horrors that were committed in Iraq? By Deborah Davies
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August 05, 2009
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Sheldon K. said:

	... Real Americans are proud that the USA remains the undisputed world leader in the fast growing prison, war, police and security industries. If you whiners had your way, unemployment would be 60% and Americans would be sneaking over the border to work in Mexico. Shame on you!
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August 05, 2009
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JohnRJ08 said:

Police State? Good grief! "America's police state"? Give me a break. Do we have too many people in prison? Of course we do. That's because we're jailing people for possessing a few ounces of pot, selling a bong, and taking money for sex. Take those people out of the equation and you end up with a more reasonable number, assuming you think any number is reasonable at all. The problem in this country began when the prison system went to the private sector, which is a profit-oriented business. That created a whole system of graft that had never existed before. OK. Criticize the country for that, but drop the ridiculous "police state" hysteria. It discredits your point of view.

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August 05, 2009 | url
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scott douglas said:

... How is it hysteria, John? When you criminalize common human action in order to drive a corporate profit center -- without regard to the real level of disruption to the community -- and with no real due process (mandatory sentencing is an abrogation of 800 years of Anglo-Saxon law) -- that seems to rational observers to be an obvious travesty. Warning to Collaborators: The dismantlement of the National Security State may be delayed by delusions and apologies, but it will not be foiled.

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August 05, 2009
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Sean O'Neil said:

no, Scott... John's correct. if you assume the same stance he does, he's correct. I mean, John's probably never been arrested for something he didn't do, and never been assaulted by the police in an excessive-force situation either. why would he be concerned, he's straight-arrow! you can't convince Ward Cleaver that there's a police state afoot. he's too busy putting on his cardigan and loading his pipe with Prince Albert choice select cut. the evidence won't matter to Ward, it's not in his reality. why would John want to know what is going on in his country? he's a loyal servant of the empire, he sees no problems here!

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August 06, 2009 | url
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William said:

... INCARCERATING PEOPLE "FOR PROFIT" IS IN A WORD....WRONG! Even if one does not ask or pretends not to see the rope and the flashing red flag draped around the philosophical question standing solemnly at attention in the middle of the room, it remains apparent that the mere presence of a private “for profit” driven prison business in our country undermines the U.S Constitution and subsequently the credibility of the American criminal justice system. In fact, until all private prisons in America have been abolished and outlawed, “the promise” of fairness and justice at every level of this country’s judicial system will remain unattainable. We must restore the principles and the vacant promise of our judicial system. Our government cannot continue to "job-out" its obligation and neglect its duty to the individuals confined in the correctional and rehabilitation facilities throughout this nation, nor can it ignore the will of the people that it was designed to serve and protect. There is urgent need for the good people of this country to emerge from the shadows of indifference, apathy, cynicism, fear, and those other dark places that we migrate to when we are overwhelmed by frustration and the loss of hope. My hope is that you will support the National Public Service Council to Abolish Private Prisons (NPSCTAPP) with a show of solidarity by signing "The Single Voice Petition" http://www.petitiononline.com/gufree2/petition.html Please visit our website for further information: http://www.npsctapp.blogspot.com –Ahma Daeus "Practicing Humanity Without A License"…

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August 06, 2009 | url
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John Larson said:

... No, no. Let's not be so quick to condemn our friend here regarding his rejection of the US as a police state. For you see, I assume he knows (and his recalcitrance in stating it plainly clearly shows his bona fides) that this vast swath of the seemingly wretched prison inmates are not that at all. No. They are, rather, an insidious and connected web of sleeper cell agents, Fifth Columnists; waiting patiently with a Terrorists pluck and deviousness to soon wage an all-out assault through "asymetrical warfare" by killing themselves in OUR prisons. It's not like we haven't had a precedent. Why, Gitmo proved that at least. If this was Kafkas's "Penal Colony" what would the Commandant spell today on our backs?

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August 06, 2009
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Sean O'Neil said:

a comic aside For some light-hearted comedy, I suggest clicking on the embedded link that underlays JOHNRJ08's name, and traveling to his blog. There you will find him blubbering tears of joy and pride at America's election of its First Black President, and a naive entreaty asking Mr Barack Hussein Obama to please make good on his hope-and-change rhetoric. Oh boy. Makes me wonder whether John puts teeth under his pillow when money is short, or expects to get baskets full of candy on the day Jesus died.

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August 07, 2009 | url
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zjm said:

	... http://www.uggboots-zone.com/
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August 07, 2009
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JohnRJ08 said:

... A "Police State' is a government owned and operated by the police, folks. That is a state where there are zero constraints on law enforcement to do whatever it likes, with no regard to basic human rights, and where the police make the laws. The notion that bad arrests and over-crowded prisons make a country a police state is, absolutely, hysterical logic. There are certain so-called human activities which our society is wrestling with right now, trying to decide whether or not to decriminalize them. Until that happens, it is a police officer's job to enforce the law. No, I have never been arrested. Probably because I've never put myself in an environment where that could happen. I've had plenty of interactions with police, and I have always found them to be ordinary people like me doing a very dangerous and necessary job in an extremely permissive society. Do I want to have them all over for dinner? No. The problem of an over-crowded prison system has more to do with bad law-making and legislation than it does with abuses of authority by police or a systemic profit motive. Once a law is on the books, it can't be ignored. If you don't like crowded prisons, campaign for decriminalization of marijuana and victimless crimes such as prostitution. That would cut a huge chunk out of the prison population. In the meantime, stop whining about a so-called police state. Now, with regard to Sean O'Neil's puerile comment, I'm a white, upper-middle class American who spent many years as a staunch Republican. I managed to live through the 60's without ever doing drugs, and actually liked Ronald Reagan. Then I put away my childish things and traded in my simple-minded ideology for some pragmatism. I would say that any American who didn't feel some pride when this country elected its first African-American president is probably a devout racist who tries to hide their bigotry behind a paper-thin mask of pseudo-political sarcasm, e.g. Sean. Sean represents a growing trend in this country that encourages people of limited intellect to show zero respect for anybody else's point of view, to the point of acting like a third grade bully who is begging to get his ass kicked. If you want real "light comedy", look for it in your own miserable world view, Sean. Your contribution to the discussion is completely predictable.

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August 07, 2009 | url
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Sean O'Neil said:

sorry, John, but you're just mistaken everywhere you turn and talk. Actually, John, I represent nothing like what you project or predict. Your inability to understand the connections in policies and laws is stunning, to say the least. Please tell me, John, where you went to law school. I want to be sure to tell my friends to dissuade their children from attending that idiot-factory. If you didn't go to law school, please tell me the jurisprudential philosopher you follow, who suggests things are as you are arguing in this thread. I'd love to learn more about such an inept "thinker" who suggests ignoring developments in American laws, regulations, and their interpretation. Whatever makes you think that police power does not control "domestic security" in America, John, you should trot out those things for us to assess. Merely projecting your disillusions and misunderstandings onto me, that's not helping anyone or anything. And your blog? Oh boy. I've seen more wisdom and maturity from 12-year-olds. And not even the hyper-intelligent ones, either. Thanks for your straw-man attacks. They're enlightening! One might even say they light up the straw-man army you created, like your own little Burning Man Festival.

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August 07, 2009 | url
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Sean O'Neil said:

... I'm a white, upper-middle class American who spent many years as a staunch Republican. I managed to live through the 60's without ever doing drugs, and actually liked Ronald Reagan. Then I put away my childish things and traded in my simple-minded ideology for some pragmatism. Translation: I am a superior White, Relatively Wealthy Male. My perspective is inerrant, and should be the norm. Those who disagree with me are immature, impractical and probably poor -- if not gay, colored, or Reagan-bashers. Reagan was the pinnacle of American government, but I'll settle for a Nigra Stepin Fetchit if he'll get the job done and keep me safe. I support having Blackwater/Xe enforcing civil laws in America, it keeps me safe. I support The Police when they commit brutality and false arrest, because it keeps me safe. Besides, the perp deserved it!

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August 07, 2009 | url
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JohnRJ08 said:

	... You're a sick guy, Shane. Glad I don't know you.
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August 07, 2009 | url
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Sean O'Neil said:

... You're a sick guy, Shane. Glad I don't know you. Interesting, coming from someone who wrote this: any American who didn't feel some pride when this country elected its first African-American president is probably a devout racist who tries to hide their bigotry Yeah, it's "racist" to disagree with Obama. It's "bigoted" to point out that Obama is the same as Dubya Bush, policy and agenda-wise. John, you seem to play like Abe Foxman -- when someone disagrees with you, it's the product of infantile thought, racism, or bigotry. The purpose in such perverse allegations is, of course, to divert attention from your own infantilism, prejudice, and ignorance. So I welcome your continued accusations toward me, they merely reinforce how deluded you are, how superior you believe yourself, how misguided your vitriol. Muy bueno!

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August 07, 2009 | url
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Adrienne said:

... http://www.thestockmasters.com/node/1594 This website gives stock hints, and this article says that CCA's future profits are safe as long as marijuana is not decriminalized.'' Then in CCA's 9/06/09 SEC filing, they lament the impending loss of their contract with DHS to incarcerate non-criminal families with infants and children at the T. Don Hutto family prison in Taylor, Texas: "We have been housing non-criminal families, along with a small population of females, at our T. Don Hutto Residential Center located in Taylor, Texas, since May 2006. Based on communications from ICE regarding a change in ICE policy of detaining families, we currently expect ICE to renegotiate our agreement to house low custody female detainees rather than families at this facility, and to negotiate a per diem rate and related terms and conditions that will be more representative of the requirements of this new population. The timetable to start those negotiations has not yet been determined. While we do not currently believe that the negotiations will result in a material impact on our financial results for 2009, a new agreement could have an adverse impact on our financial results for 2010." There was a conference last weekend at Texas Southern University called "The International Prison Privatization Experience: A Transatlantic and Transpacific Dialogue." http://bit.ly/IoFLQ (conference schedule and list of speakers and topics). The papers by presenters will soon be published on the internet. The Bush/Chertoff administration last year announced three more planned immigrant family detention centers (where non-criminal asylum seekers, for the most part, are held in private prisons-for-profit for months together with their children awaiting their hearings). Obama last week announced the cancellation of those plans, and the consolidation of the two existing family prisons, Hutto in Taylor, Texas, and Berks, into one at Berks family prison in rural Pennsylvania. And they've just reintroduced the SAVE Act, with 88 cosponsors in the House, that would create 8,000 more detention beds and build more border wall. How is an enforcement-only solution going to work? The "secure the border" and "catch and imprison immigrants" mentality is eerily similar to the war on drugs. It also involves a lot of crony contractors, from private prisons running most of the immigrant detention centers, to the building of border walls (by waiving all laws thanks to Section 102 of the REAL ID Act) through Native American lands, Fish & Wildlife preserves, National Parks, state parks, historical cities, private property that has been in families for generations, etc., to the tune of billions of dollars.

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August 11, 2009
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Pico RG said:

	Americans are salt Its getting every day harder and harder to encounter on these people becouse they are salt and sun.
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August 31, 2009
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