Private PRISON LOBBYISTS Are Raising Cash for Hillary Clinton

[Segami]

As immigration and incarceration issues become central to the 2016 presidential campaign, lobbyists for two major prison companies are serving as top fundraisers for Hillary Clinton. Corrections Corporation of America and the Geo Group could both see their fortunes turning if there are fewer people to lock up in the future. Last week, Clinton and other candidates revealed a number of lobbyists who are serving as “bundlers” for their campaigns. Bundlers collect contributions on behalf of a campaign, and are often rewarded with special favors, such as access to the candidate. Richard Sullivan, of the lobbying firm Capitol Counsel, is a bundler for the Clinton campaign, bringing in $44,859 in contributions in a few short months. Sullivan is also a registered lobbyist for the Geo Group, a company that operates a number of jails, including immigrant detention centers, for profit.


As we reported yesterday, fully five Clinton bundlers work for the lobbying and law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Corrections Corporation of America, the largest private prison company in America, paid Akin Gump $240,000 in lobbying fees last year. The firm also serves as a law firm for the prison giant, representing the company in court. Akin Gump lobbyist and Clinton bundler Brian Popper disclosed that he previously helped CCA defeat efforts to compel private prisons to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests.


Hillary Clinton has a complicated history with incarceration. As first lady, she championed efforts to get tough on crime. “We need more police, we need more and tougher prison sentences for repeat offenders,” Clinton said in 1994. “The ‘three strikes and you’re out’ for violent offenders has to be part of the plan. We need more prisons to keep violent offenders for as long as it takes to keep them off the streets,” she added. In recent months, Clinton has tacked left in some ways, and now calls for alternatives to incarceration and for greater police accountability. And while Clinton has backed a path to citizenship for undocumented people in America, she recently signaled a willingness to crack down on so-called “sanctuary cities,” a move that could lead to more immigrant detentions.


The future of both criminal justice reform and immigration are critical for private prison firms. The Geo Group, in a disclosure statement for its investors, notes that its business could be “adversely affected by changes in existing criminal or immigration laws, crime rates in jurisdictions in which we operate, the relaxation of criminal or immigration enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction, sentencing or deportation practices, and the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by criminal laws or the loosening of immigration laws.”




https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/07/23/private-prison-lobbyists-raising-cash-hillary-clinton/

[Zorra]

1. The Clinton Dynasty's Horrific Legacy: More Drug War, More Prisons

Pandering to "tough on crime" politics and "war on drugs" rhetoric helped create the world's largest prison system. Has Hillary learned anything?
By Jeff Stein / Salon
April 13, 2015
snip----
Just before the New Hampshire primary, Bill Clinton famously flew back to Arkansas to personally oversee the execution of a mentally impaired African-American inmate named Ricky Ray Rector. The “New Democrat” spoke on the campaign trail of being tougher on criminals than Republicans; and the symbolism of the Rector execution was followed by a series of Clinton “tough on crime” measures, including: a $30 billion crime bill that created dozens of new federal capital crimes; new life-sentence rules for some three-time offenders; mandatory minimums for crack and crack cocaine possession; billions of dollars in funding for prisons; extra funding for states that severely punished convicts; limited judges’ discretion in determining criminal sentences; and so on. There is very strong evidence that these policies had a small impact on actual crime rates, totally out of proportion to their severity.

There is also very strong evidence that these policies contributed to the immiseration of vast numbers of black (and also white) Americans at the bottom of the economic ladder, according to the well-known conclusions of journalists, academics and other criminal justice experts. Federal funding for public housing fell by $17 billion (a 61 percent reduction) under Bill Clinton’s tenure; federal funding for corrections rose by $19 billion (an increase of 171 percent), according to Michelle Alexander’s seminal work, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.” The federal government’s new priorities redirected nearly $1 billion in state spending for higher education to prison construction. Clinton put a permanent eligibility ban for welfare or food stamps on anyone convicted of a felony drug offense (including marijuana possession). He prohibited drug felons from public housing. Any liberal arts grad with an HBO account can tell you the consequences for poor, black American cities like Baltimore. As Alexander writes, “More than any other president, [Clinton] created the current racial under caste.”

As recently noted by Reason.com, Hillary actively lobbied for the aforementioned criminal justice reforms as First Lady and, as a New York senator, voted to expand grants that dramatically scaled up police involvement in anti-terror and homeland security efforts. She also said things like this, in support of a crime bill that would impose Draconian new sentencing provisions:

“We need more police, we need more and tougher prison sentences for repeat offenders. The three strikes and you’re out for violent offenders has to be part of the plan. We need more prisons to keep violent offenders for as long as it takes to keep them off the streets.”

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/clinton-dynasty-horrific-legacy-more-drug-war-more-prisons

Black Lives Matter.

(Courtesy of a hidden post by woomewithscience)

[Segami]

5. And then,..

we were all treated to a delicious Bill Clinton "I signed a bill that made the problem worse" mea culpa chocolate sundae enema.

Treats for everyone!

[HFRN]

7. add that to NAFTA, MFN-China, H-1b Visa expansions, DOMA, Iraq war vote

bad and bad and bad

[BainsBane]

18. Yet Bernie voted for the 1993 crime bill

Yet you have decided Hillary is more responsible than a congressman who voted for it? Because of her husband?

https://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/27110/bernie-sanders/20/crime#.VbGHkbNVikp

[bvf]

2. Well that's just fucking swell. n/t

[grasswire]

3. People of Color, take note.

I will work like hell to keep this corporatist who accepts money from America's modern-day "plantations" from getting the nomination.

[HFRN]

9. private prisons are predators of people of color

and have absolutely devastated their communities

what percent of AA men been in prison? it's unreal

[grasswire]

12. absolutely

It has been cynical and heinous attack on AA families.

It's very disheartening that Hillary is callously supporting this by accepting money.

I have visited some of those prisons as a volunteer. I've been to the trade show of the American Correctional Association. I know the profiteers and their ugly business.

For shame, Hillary Clinton.

[stranger81]

4. Private prison corporations should be banned.

Completely unacceptable from any Democrat.

[malokvale77]

6. Why am I not surprised? (nt)

[HFRN]

8. dont worry, the private prisons are just lobbying for prisoner justice and fairness

aren't they?

[Segami]

11. Of course they are....its right there in black and white

spelled out in their 'disclosure statement for its investors'.........

"....The future of both criminal justice reform and immigration are critical for private prison firms. The Geo Group, in a disclosure statement for its investors, notes that its business could be “adversely affected by changes in existing criminal or immigration laws, crime rates in jurisdictions in which we operate, the relaxation of criminal or immigration enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction, sentencing or deportation practices, and the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by criminal laws or the loosening of immigration laws....”

They support a candidate who will protect their bottom line profits. Hillary is their horse.

[HFRN]

13. that's precisely why private prisons are immoral by nature

because you have entities lobbying for longer sentences for no other reaon but profit - and the portion of a sentence that was lobbied for more profit is false imprisonment

plus, it invalidates the PP's original proposition to the taxpayers that they save money - they don't because they lobby for longer sentences and that's what you end up with

[Cheese Sandwich]

10. fuck the system nt

[HFRN]

14. article: 'The Overcriminalization of America'

yes, it's THAT Charles Koch

The Overcriminalization of America

How to reduce poverty and improve race relations by rethinking our justice system.

By CHARLES G. KOCH and MARK V. HOLDEN

January 07, 2015

As Americans, we like to believe the rule of law in our country is respected and fairly applied, and that only those who commit crimes of fraud or violence are punished and imprisoned. But the reality is often different. It is surprisingly easy for otherwise law-abiding citizens to run afoul of the overwhelming number of federal and state criminal laws. This proliferation is sometimes referred to as “overcriminalization,” which affects us all but most profoundly harms our disadvantaged citizens.

Overcriminalization has led to the mass incarceration of those ensnared by our criminal justice system, even though such imprisonment does not always enhance public safety. Indeed, more than half of federal inmates are nonviolent drug offenders. Enforcing so many victimless crimes inevitably leads to conflict between our citizens and law enforcement. As we have seen all too often, it can place our police officers in harm’s way, leading to tragic consequences for all involved.

How did we get in this situation? It began with well-intentioned lawmakers who went overboard trying to solve perceived or actual problems. Congress creates, on average, more than 50 new criminal laws each year. Over time, this has translated into more than 4,500 federal criminal laws spread across 27,000 pages of the United States federal code. (This number does not include the thousands of criminal penalties in federal regulations.) As a result, the United States is the world’s largest jailer—first in the world for total number imprisoned and first among industrialized nations in the rate of incarceration. The United States represents about 5 percent of the world’s population but houses about 25 percent of the world’s prisoners.

We have paid a heavy price for mass incarceration and could benefit by reversing this trend. It has been estimated that at least 53 percent of those entering prison were living at or below the U.S. poverty line when their sentence began. Incarceration leads to a 40 percent decrease in annual earnings, reduced job tenure and higher unemployment. A Pew Charitable Trust study revealed that two-thirds of former inmates with earnings in the bottom fifth upon release in 1986 remained at or below that level 20 years later. A Villanova University study concluded that “had mass incarceration not occurred, poverty would have decreased by more than 20 percent, or about 2.8 percentage points” and “several million fewer people would have been in poverty in recent years.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/01/overcriminalization-of-america-113991.html#ixzz3gloFyQmm

[Segami]

15. Prison Labor: Workin' For The Man

Goldman Sachs-Supported Solar Company Uses Prison Labor to Make Panels


A leading maker of solar panels in the United States backed by Goldman Sachs has been using prison labor to help keep its production costs down.

Suniva Inc., based in Georgia, contracts with UNICOR, the name of the 80-year-old Federal Prison Industries, so inmates can assist with the assembly of solar panels.

Company officials told Reuters that prison labor accounts for only a small portion of its manufacturing operations, less than 10%. They say Suniva factories in Georgia and Michigan employing 350 people produce most of the panels. Several hundred inmates make solar panels at prisons in Sheridan, Oregon and Otisville, New York, reported the news organization.

The arrangement is part of a longtime government program said to be designed to prepare inmates for transitioning to life after their release from prison. However, prison workers reportedly earn only between 23 cents and $1.15 per hour, and are required to spend at least half of their UNICOR income to pay off court-ordered financial debts. Furthermore, the prisons apparently provide no job placement assistance for inmates released onto the streets, whose prison records follow them as they seek employment.

The UNICOR program employs about 13,000 prisoners per year and, in 2013, made nearly $610 million, according to AlterNet.

Relying on cheap labor is nothing new for Suniva, the third-largest producer of solar modules in the U.S., which was using factories in Asia until 18 months ago to keep costs down. Signing a contract with UNICOR has enabled them to transfer their operations to the U.S., according to company sales vice-president Matt Card.

“By making panels in the United States, Suniva has been able to capture lucrative federal contracts, avoid U.S. government tariffs on Chinese-made panels, and appeal to private sector customers who want American-made products,” wrote Reuters’ Nichola Groom.

The company reportedly earned nearly $100 million in revenue last year.


http://www.allgov.com/news/where-is-the-money-going/goldman-sachs-supported-solar-company-uses-prison-labor-to-make-panels-150707?news=856901

[Cheese Sandwich]

16. Prison labor is actually a bad thing. Yeah they should work if they want to for actual money,

but not for the pennies they get paid. It's actually quite an outrage.

[betterdemsonly]

17. Deafening silence. n/t

[HFRN]

19. k

[Zorra]

20. ^