2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumBill Clinton’s Mass Incarceration Policies Fed Rising Higher Education Costs and Student Debt Burden
How Bill Clintons Mass Incarceration Policies Fed Rising Higher Education Costs and Student Debt Burdens
Posted on April 10, 2016 by Yves Smith
I seldom post a extract from another site without further commentary of my own, but this is sufficiently important that it deserves to be highlighted without me getting in the way. From Ben Jealous via Medium:
Furthermore, virtually every American between 18 and 24 is paying a price for mass incarceration.
This is because state after state has cut their higher education budget to pay for higher incarceration. As a result, public university tuition and student default rates have soared. Our youngest voters find themselves most likely to either be in prison, indentured by student loan debt or afraid to even apply to college.
President Clinton was misleading when he suggested his 1994 crime bill was only responsible for 10 percent of Americas mass incarceration crisis because that bill only applied to the federal system. Since at least the 1970s, when incarceration rates began rising in America, the states have quickly replicated federal changes in sentencing laws.
Indeed, most Black Lives Matter activists have paid a steep price for President Clintons policies.
However, they also understand what President Clinton has often ignored: while the percentages are higher in the black community, an equal or larger number of our white sisters and brothers have been impacted by the sky-high incarceration, poverty, and student debt default rates spurred by the very policies he touted.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/04/how-bill-clintons-mass-incarceration-policies-fed-rising-higher-education-costs-and-student-debt-burdens.html
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)He bares responsibility for the bad things as well.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)My thinking on that has evolved and now it's clear to me that people who were fooled by Dubya suffer a mental incapacity and it's not right to blame people for things they can't help, like being naive and gullible.
It's really too bad that Hillary never heard of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, perhaps if she had it might have tempered her natural gullibility with some prudence.
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)I think it's obvious what happened, Hillary was overwhelmed by Bush's intellect and poise. People forget that Dubya had degrees from both Harvard _and_ Yale.
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)Hillarys Best Bundlers Lobby For Big Pharma, Private Prisons, And Anti-Obamacare Health Insurers
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2016/02/01/hillarys-best-bundlers-lobby-for-big-pharma-private-prisons-and-anti-obamacare-health-insurers/#ixzz45YQSUgzP
Clinton's position now is to reject this money, but obviously the private prison industry knows how to influence politicians based on past performance and positions.
BreakfastClub
(765 posts)know that the black communities were raging with violence during the crack epidemic. Black leaders were calling for help from government. Those black leaders insisted that the government step in and do something because black kids were being shot down in the streets. The crime bill was what they WANTED. Bill did nothing wrong. Context is everything.
Jitter65
(3,089 posts)floppyboo
(2,461 posts)This is a no-brainer, except the pharmaceutical co.'s don't like that one little bit - or the private prisons.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)Drug testing industry, rehab industry, the list is damn near endless..
BernieforPres2016
(3,017 posts)Alabama's prison system is so overwhelmed and outdated that the Republican governor (who could be impeached due to an affair with a staffer) has proposed building 3 large new prisons and shutting down some old ones. And states are also spending money on "incentives" to keep existing businesses and lure new ones, i.e. corporate welfare.
As Bernie was saying in his Wisconsin speeches, it is cheaper to send a kid to the University of Wisconsin than to incarcerate him.
azmom
(5,208 posts)but they and their buddies made millions. We can expect to see more of that if Hill is elected.
woolldog
(8,791 posts)You're not so sexist as to hold HRC responsible for her husband's actions are you?
Cheese Sandwich
(9,086 posts)Ghettos are internal colonies.
All this shit is quite expensive but first you need to learn to count.