(The
B la c k
COhseruer
H M
istorv
March 1, 2000
Focus
Page 3
The Prison Industrial complex
Ionth
The Prison Industrial Com plex
actually has its roots in history,
particularly the system o f economic
slavery in the South. It evolved from
a variety o f constructs that has
become a system where millions o f
young men and an increasingly large
amount o f young women in their
c h ild b e a rin g y e a rs a re b ein g
processed through a system that is
c re a tin g a new n o rm fo r
dysfunctional family life. So many
young people have been through
the justice system that the middle
class attitude against imprisonment
is changing by necessity.
THE E V O L U T IO N O F THE
POVERTY
IN D U S T R IA L
COMPLEX
The end o f slavery in the South after
theCivil War meant vast changes in
the economy o f the conquered land.
After the end o f slavery and the
occupation o f the rebellious South,
the econom y o f the rebellious
agricultural region o f America was
wrecked.
Now, compounding the money woes
were their former slaves who now
had to be paid for their work instead
of having a touch o f the lash to
motivate them. But they found a
way out. After the Union troops
went back the southern power
holders fell on the ex-slaves with a
vengeance.
The South, using what came to be
called the “Black Codes” instituted
North American Apartheid and just
made it easier to collect up able
bodied men for petty crim es,
vagrancy or being shift-less and
convert them into workers for the
state.
They were now put to work with
chains clink-clinking along as they
picked, hoed, chopped and baled
cotton just as if nothing had ever
changed. The roads were rebuilt,
the rivers levees erected, the soil
tilled andlaterthehighwayscleaned
and paved.
The Southern chain gangs are the
lingering heritage of those times.
This is why the biggest, baddest
prisons are in former slave holding
agricultural and especially sugar
cane producing states, such as
Louisiana. Chain gangs are now
being considered for N orthern
states, with the high-tech twist o f
having electro n ic incapitators
instead o f chains.
TH E
CORPORATE,
CORRECTIONS TIE-IN
Indeed a new caste is being created,
with the Formerly Incarcerated
being so numerous in some urban
Blackcommunities that high school
to jail or juvenile corrections, to
street (for awhile), thence to jail
again, out and back is part o f the
Rites o f Passage o f growing up for
in creasin g num bers o f young
people. Coupled with the absence
o f fathers in the home a vicious
cycle has been set in motion that
keeps the raw material forthe Prison
Industrial Complex humming along,
grinding up more and more people
whose productivity is lost to their
communities,
WHO BENEFITS FROM THE
POVERTY
P R ISO N
INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX?
Corrections Corp of America aren't
the only ones who are making bank
o ff the rise in prisoners. There is a
discernible cadre who directly
benefit from this state o f affairs on
the civilian end.
T he m ore c h ild re n w ho are
classified “Learning Disabled” or
"A t Risk” means m ore federal
m oney flow ing into a district.
Teachers who become so certified
are also paid a good deal more, so
it’s also like a jobs program that
doesn’t have to come out o f the
local school budget.
More people sentenced mean more
probation agents, and more prisons.
This means more builders and
concrete, electronics, and prisons
sited in rural communities to replace
the falling agricultural economy.
W hy? T h ese so c ia l w o rk e rs,
educators, and p o litic ia n s are
supposed to be fighting for the
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a
white man on a Montgomery’, Alabama bus. She was charged for
violating the city's transportation laws. Her subsequent arrest,
pictured here, resulted in a mass boycott o f city buses and brought the
civil rights movement and Martin Luther King to national prominence.
downtrodden. Sure, many in the
Black Middle Class seemed to have
“pulled up the rope" after they stood
on our backs to get over the racial
barriers, and since then have been
curiously slow about throwing down
(Please see ‘Prison’ page 5)
On Black History Month
"The contributions African Americans have made throughout history’ needs to be told
over and over again.
O f Specific note — there is no memorial to the multitudes o f African American soldiers
who fought in the American Revolution. Many o f those soldiers were still slaves when
they fought and died fo r the so-called 'War fo r independence'.
We need reminders, such as Black History Month, to keep us actively thinking about
the immemorial contributions all African Americans have made to the community’ and
to our country"
Commissioner Dan Saltzman