US Crime and Prision Population Up

I am not supprised at all....when there is cheep or free labor to be had, the demands will increase, so natualy one have to find a way to increase the labor force.

US Farmers Using Prison Labor
By Nicole Hill
The Christian Science Monitor

Wednesday 22 August 2007

With tightening restrictions on migrant workers, some farmers are turning to the incarcerated.
Picacho, Arizona - Near this dusty town in southeastern Arizona, Manuel Reyna pitches watermelons into the back of a trailer hitched to a tractor. His father was a migrant farm worker, but growing up, Mr. Reyna never saw himself following his father's footsteps. Now, as an inmate at the Picacho Prison Unit here, Reyna works under the blazing desert sun alongside Mexican farmers the way his father did.

"My dad tried to keep me out of trouble," he says, wearing a bandanna to keep the sweat out of his eyes. "But I always got back into the easy money, because it was faster and a lot more money." He's serving a 6-1/2 year sentence for possession and sale of rock cocaine.

As states increasingly crack down on hiring undocumented workers, western farmers are looking at inmates to harvest their fields. Colorado started sending female inmates to harvest onions, corn, and melons this summer. Iowa is considering a similar program. In Arizona, inmates have been working for private agriculture businesses for almost 20 years. But with legislation signed this summer that would fine employers for knowingly hiring undocumented workers, more farmers are turning to the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) for help.

"We are contacted almost daily by different companies needing labor," says Bruce Farely, manager of the business development unit of Arizona Correctional Industries (ACI). ACI is a state labor program that holds contracts with government and private companies. "Maybe it was labor that was undocumented before, and they don't want to take the risk anymore because of possible consequences, so they are looking to inmate labor as a possible alternative."

Reyna and about 20 other low-risk, nonviolent offenders work at LBJ Farm, a family-owned watermelon farm, as part of ADC's mission to employ every inmate, either behind prison walls or in outside companies. The idea is to help inmates develop job skills and save money for their release. "It helps them really pay their debt back to the folks who have been harmed in society, as well as make adequate preparation for their release back onto the streets." says ADC director Dora Schriro.

If it weren't for a steady flow of inmates year-round, says Jack Dixon, owner of LBJ, one of the largest watermelon farms in the western US, he'd have sold out long ago. Even so, last year 400 acres of his watermelons rotted on the ground - a $640,000 loss - because there weren't enough harvesters. Mr. Dixon had applied for 60 H2-A guest worker visas, but only 14 were approved because of previous visa violations.

"We are in desperate need for hand labor," says Dixon, who started working on the farm when he was 9, alongside mostly migrant workers. "It's hard to get migrant workers up here anymore, with all the laws preventing them. It's not what it used to be," Dixon says. "It's dangerous for them with all the coyote wars and smuggling."

Other farmers wonder if inmates could be their solution. Dixon has received calls from a yellow-squash farmer in Texas inquiring about how to set up an inmate labor contract as well as from another watermelon farmer in Colorado seeking advice on how to manage inmate crews.

For labor-rights activists, federal immigration reform is the only viable solution to worker shortages.

Marc Grossman, spokesman for the United Farm Workers of America, says inmate labor undermines what unionized farmworkers have wanted for years: to be paid based on skill and experience. "It's rather insulting that the state [Arizona] would look so poorly on farm workers that they would attempt to use inmates," Grossman says. There is also the food-safety aspect, he says: Experienced workers understand sanitary harvesting.

"Agriculture does not have a reliable workforce, and the answer does not lie with prison labor," says Paul Simonds of the Western Growers Association, a trade association representing California and Arizona. "This just underscores the need for legislation to be passed to provide a legal, stable workforce." A prison lockdown would be disastrous, he points out, with perishable crops awaiting harvest. Other crops, like asparagus and broccoli, require skilled workers.

Although the ADC is considering innovative solutions - including satellite prisons - to fulfill companies' requests for inmate labor, prison officials agree that, in the end, the demand is too high. "To go into a state where agriculture is worth $9.2 billion and expect to meet a workforce need is impossible," says Katie Decker, spokeswoman for ADC. At any given time only about 3,300 prisoners statewide (out of a prison population of about 37,000) are cleared to work outside.

ACI provides inmates to nine private agricultural companies in Arizona, ranging from a hydroponics greenhouse tomato plant to a green chile cannery. Unlike other sectors where federal regulations require that inmate workers be paid a prevailing wage and receive worker compensation, agricultural companies can hire state inmates on a contract basis. They must be paid a minimum of $2 per hour. Thirty percent of their wages go to room and board in prison. The rest goes to court-ordered restitution for victims, any child support, and a mandatory savings account. Private companies are required to pay for transportation from the prison to the worksite and for prison guards.

For Reyna, his work on farms over the past couple of years has added $9,000 in his savings account and given him a renewed respect for his Mexican father's lifetime of stoop labor.

At Dixon's farm, it's 103 degrees F. The inmate crews, wearing orange jumpsuits, work in a rhythmic line, calling out the number of the watermelons, and alongside the trailer. Just a few yards away, Mexican workers also work in a line. The inmates will quit at 4 p.m., while the immigrant laborers may work 13-hour days. "We go back, they stay out here," Reyna says. "It really isn't the same."

In the farm's office, watermelons line the counter, and photos of migrant workers hang in dusty frames. When asked why he doesn't sell the farm, Dixon says, "the inmates, the migrants, these people are part of the family - that's why I keep this darn place."

Dixon says he supports the idea of a reformed, guest-worker program that would employ migrant workers during the harvest and return them to Mexico in the winter. But until that happens, he's willing to fight for the workers he's shared the land with for most of his life.

"People are crossing the border because they are starving to death," Dixon says, "I don't care what their status is. If they are hungry and thirsty, I am going to feed them."

"I could sell this and quit," he continues, "But I believe in supporting the American farming industry."

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US Farmers Using Prison Labor



Prison labor on the rise in US

<http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/may2000/pris-m08.shtml>

By Alan Whyte and Jamie Baker
8 May 2000

US trade union officials have repeatedly denounced China for its use of
prison labor, as part of the AFL-CIO's campaign against the normalization of
trade relations with China. At the same time, however, the union officials
have virtually been silent about the huge growth of prison labor in the
United States.

There are presently 80,000 inmates in the US employed in commercial
activity, some earning as little as 21 cents an hour. The US government
program Federal Prison Industries (FPI) currently employs 21,000 inmates, an
increase of 14 percent in the last two years alone. FPI inmates make a wide
variety of products—such as clothing, file cabinets, electronic equipment
and military helmets—which are sold to federal agencies and private
companies. FPI sales are $600 million annually and rising, with over $37
million in profits.

The rest of the article is at the link below.


[PRISONACT] Prison labor on the rise in US

Lock up all scumbags. Lock'm up. Make'm work. Break up the gangs.

That's easy for you to say because your not one of the innocent in prison who is being exploited. The environment that is created in the prison is not one of rehabilitation; by the time one is done serving their sentence what is the attitude of that person, considering that after having a prison record most companies are not willing to hire anyone who has a prison record.

Smash the gangs. That's my bottom line. Smash'm flat. Gangs are killing this country.:worship::rocketwhore:

Anytime you have mindless, unwinnable wars against a "enemy" that doesn't exist you will have this. The war on drugs accounts for a large percent of the prison population. Guess what? There's MORE drugs on the streets than ever before, maybe something is not right here...naw lets just pump more, and more money into a problem that can not be solved through oppression.

It is a well know fact among those who work for the CIA, DEA and other secret service agents that the CIA has used the dead bodies of American solder in places like Columbia to smuggle cocaine into the USA.

Source?

On a side note, prison is supposed to be a rehabilitation facility but that is not the case. I have met a few guys that have really turned there lives around on there own accord but they had a very good support system. Their family was there to support them along with other loved ones, children, wives, girlfriends ect. But most of the time some guy gets tossed in the state or federal pen and he links up with guys from the same crew that are operating on the outside. Prison is a more focused problem of what exists on the outside, the drug/arms/sex trade is still there. If these guys would spend there terms exposed to another world instead of a hyper focused version of the current world they live in then maybe they could see the light.

As for the War on (insert topic) it is all a joke. Political campaign's are won and loss on these platforms it is a joke. We can never take out the head honchos in these matters because a lot of careers would be ruined because of it. No more drugs = no more DEA.

But maybe if we came up with more serious programs other than DARE and offered free outreach programs in the bad parts of our towns and city's we could make a difference. I am not talking about middle school and high school we have to get them in grades school. But that takes money, and a lot of time it is hard to get money for projects that will not show results for 10 to 20 years, maybe even longer.

Here is one source for starters; the guy who owns this site is a retired DEA agent. He has a radio show called the Expert witness Show on WBAI 99.5 FM in New York City. They predicted 911 long before it ever happened. You can log on to that site at WBAI, New York - 99.5 FM Pacifica Radio - Home and check the program schedule. It's been a while since I tuned in, since the show was changed from late in the evening to about 5 clock PM New York City time.

The Expert Witness Radio Show with Michael Levine

Agreed. We're reliving The Fall of Rome. But....don't blame everything on Bush. It started long, long before he came to power. Besides, he's a good man for standing up to Terrorist Islam, which is a major contributor to the downfall of the West.:AR15firing:

I don't believe that Bush's intention is to fight terrorism...one does not need to protect his home by invading his neighbor's, all they need to do is secure their own borders. Bush has his own hidden agenda which conflicts with his duty as the president of this country. Jesus said that one cannot serve two masters; Bush is a member of a secret society called the skull and bones. Any political figure who is a member of a secret society has bound themselves to perform what they are required to do, such members if in the government is bond to betray the trust of the people and the office to which they sit.

Totally agreed and I have met MANY victims of "the war on drugs". While in county jail in sherburne co. MN last year I met many people there in holding awaiting their federal trials ( SherCo makes over $1MIL a month for it ).

I met a guy named Adam whose car tuning business was going in the hole and he needed some quick cash. A lot of his customers were drug dealers so he got an offer to make one trip to MN with 8 kilos of methamphetamine for which he will be paid $10,000.

He then delivers the dope to the "client" who turns out to be a federal agent.
The amount seized is rounded up to 9 pounds, it is "understood" by the feds that "no one" gets this much dope on their first run and they figure 9 pounds a month for "at least" 1 year and charge him and two of his business partners with "conspiracy to distribute 108 lbs. of methamphetamine"

the only product they seized was 8.8lbs. the rest they dont need to prove since they charge the case as "conspiracy" ( the chargees call it "ghost dope" ).

they pull up cell phone ( text messages )records and anything mentioning "car parts" is deemed by the government as "code" for drugs. This is how the partners get dragged in and now they have 3 people to make it an "official" conspiracy.

Obviously Adam is guilty of delivering 8 kilos of dope which he will readily admit. His partners were not, and the provider of the dope in the first place.... He is a confidential informant and as such absolved of any charges, and on the streets of Oregon right now, probably trying to set someone else up.

Adam's plea offer is 25 years, if he fights the case and is convicted will sit for over 100 years!

This is NO WAY to run a "war on drugs" the only person complicit in this crime and NOT working for the government is the middle man Adam. He and his unlucky business partners are bearing the brunt of an out of control government effort to "stop" drugs. I shudder to think he was one of HUNDREDS of of inmates awaiting their fed cases and how much this will cost us all.

I dont think these methods are going to work out well for America.

I was watching "Out in the Open" last night, and they had a funny commentary about crack, and cocaine. The guy had five packets of sugar on a tray and said "This is how much crack you need to be caught with to ge five years in prison" then he had a tray that had 500 packets of sugar and said " This is how much powder cocaine you need to be caught with to get five years in prison". Then he moved to the big screen and put up prison populations. 82% of the people in jail for crack are black, 80% of the people in jail for powder are white. Interesting I think.

I guess they're trying to not to discriminate any more, meth is the new crack for poor to middle class whites. With sentencing guidlines nearly the same, meth is just a smidge more severe.
Also if you should be unlucky enough to be caught with enough crack to make it a fed case ( like one of my roomates ) the rules of "ghost dope apply". The lowest plea I've seen in a fed case is 10 years, and almost everyone pleas out because the feds are VERY proud of their 99% conviction rate.

If you get caught with meth, got to jail... there is no unfortunate case. You had dope its illegal, you knew it was illegal before you had the dope.


And to whomever spoke of the INNOCENCE in prison, Quit talking like that is the norm. 99.9%of inmates deserve to be there. I will take those odds in vegas any day.

Aside from crack's addictiveness being a factor, cocaine is a rich boy's toy.

We all know that richies get away with a bit more than the rest of us.

I know plenty of white folks that smoke rock, but they also shoot dope, snort, bang coke, whatever. It's weird, most of the hardcore people I know are equal opporunity druggies. Also cocaine is rooted in money, that's where it got it's foothold in America, the upper crust party scene, aside from say Richard Pryor, who was a basehead, but he probably gave equal time to other "recreations". Crack came about as a way to get it to more people for less money.

Do you have any Idea WHY the terrorists attacked us?

I bet I can tell you his answer. It's either, "they hate us because of our freedom", or "Islam wants to conqueor America". You can bet every penny you haev that it will not include anything resembling the fact that we have been interfering with the Middle East since 1953, supporting puppet dictators, overthrowing elected governments that were not friendly to the west, arming and training just about every nation there against the others at one time or another.