I never thought I’d see the day when Florida’s conservative anti-prisoner, pro-death penalty politicians in Tallahassee would actually debate the logic of closing some of Florida’s prisons. But there it was, they were proposing shutting down three of the oldest prisons and laying off 639 guards. With the United States (and most of the rest of the world) now in the worst economic recession since the great depression, budget cuts have become common. Many other states have already confronted the necessity of reducing the cost of incarcerating millions of prisoners.
Up until now, the state of Florida had reduced the prison budget by cutting back on the food and other provisions. Last year they cut the amount of food served by almost half, completely eliminating all real meat, fresh fruit and milk. They also increased the prices of food items that can be purchased by inmates through “canteen”, which is basically a privately contracted store that has a virtual monopoly within the prison system. We must purchase food items, cosmetics (shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste etc) and even shoes and clothing through this canteen. Of course, the state gets a cut of the “profits” so by increasing the prices of these items the state makes millions of dollars a year by collaborating with the private contractors to rob the prisoners, or actually the prisoner’s families and friends, as they are the ones
providing the prisoners with small amounts of money whenever they can.
As many of you already know, the former director of Florida’s prison system (James Crosby) is now himself a prisoner after pleading guilty to accepting substantial kickbacks from the private company that operates the prison “canteen” That federal conviction was only a small part of the “culture of corruption” that became so pervasive within the Florida Department of Corrections that even the systematic assaults upon prisoners by the guards became routine (please read “
welcome to the jungle)
But as the state of Florida suffered under the severe economic recession and repeatedly devised ways to “save” money by reducing what prisoners received, the cartel of conservative politicians that controls the Florida legislature, led by pro-death penalty chairman of the corrections committee Florida senator Victor Crist, vowed that they would allow the state to go bankrupt before they allowed even one prisoner to be released.
In Florida, like so many other states, prisoners have become a virtual industry and political elections often decided by which politicians would promise to lock up more prisoners – more prisoners meant more prisons, and more prisons meant more money getting pumped into the local communities. In the past few decades, Florida went from about 20.000 prisoners to now well over 120.000. Almost every county in the state now has at least one prison and each prison employs hundreds of guards and administrative personnel.
These communities then form powerful political lobbying groups that pump incredible amounts of money into the political campaigns of those that run for public office on the promise that they will build even more prisons and lock up even more prisoners. This perpetual political circus has now created a virtual industry throughout America, resulting in the United States now having the highest incarceration rate in the world, even exceeding countries like North Korea, Iran and even China.
So I was surprised when I watched the state legislature on the local public broadcasting station (PBS) and they openly talked of passing a law within the next few months to close 3 of Florida’s oldest prisons, and effectively fire at least 639 guards and prison staff.
As I listened to this debate, I then began to smile. I really should have known that these “lock em all up” conservative politicians would never propose closing even one prison if they didn’t have an agenda. Sure enough, it’s yet another game of smoke and mirrors as although they are proposing closing down 3 state prisons under the pretense of “saving money”, what they actually want is to open an even larger state prison recently built in Santa Rosa County by a private prison company.
This is the nature of the beast – with billions of dollars used to fund the prison industry and countless “Fortune 500” multi-national corporations anxious to get their cut of the profits, a number of huge private corporations now specialize in building and operating private prisons and then charge the state and federal government per prisoner, per day.
Florida has long embraced the concept of “for profit” prisons and privately owned prisons operate throughout the state. With the projected growth if this prison industry substantially outpacing any other segment of the financial markets, these private companies pumped more and more money in into the political campaigns of the conservative politicians in exchange for their support to build even more private prisons.
Several years ago one of the largest private “for profit” prisons in the country was approved to be built in rural Santa Rosa county, way out at the eastern edge of Florida’s panhandle. This massive complex now known as Blackwater Correctional was completed just a few months ago. But with the economic recession suffocating Florida’s budget, there was no money in the state budget to open this new complex. That means that this politically powerful private company that spent over a hundred million dollars to build this complex would now face a substantial loss that could easily even force the company into bankruptcy.
As coincidence would have it, this is an election year. That means that all these politicians must raise incredible amounts of money to run for office and although individual contributions to political campaigns are limited, “special interest” groups such as the company that owns the new private for profit prison in Santa Rosa county can pump virtually unlimited amounts of money into ‘political action committees” to support the election of politicians willing to help them.
That is what this is all about. These politicians now want to close 3 of Florida’s state-owned state-run prisons so they can come up with the money to open the new private for-profit prison in Santa Rosa County. These politicians claim that by closing the 3 state prisons and using the money to open the private Blackwater Correctional prison in Santa Rosa County, they can save about $15 million a year.
Some of the politicians argued against effectively firing 639 employees when Florida is already suffering from a record unemployment rate of over 12 %, as not only would it be unlikely these state employees could find work
Comparable to what they now have, but with these state prisons located in mostly rural counties, closing these state prisons would have a substantial “ripple effect” on the entire local community, resulting its small businesses in the area dependent upon the prison money to also be forced into bankruptcy.
But so what if what amounts to thousands of people being negatively affected by closing down 3 state prisons? Don’t they get it? This is not about what is good for the taxpayers of Florida, or the state employees that have built their homes in these local communities, as the communities themselves that are now economically dependent upon the revenue generated by their share of this prison industry. That’s not what it is about. Rather, what this is really about is twisting the issue about to justify opening a private “for profit” prison for no reason but because the multi billion dollar corporations that wants to open the prison can pump large amounts of money into the political campaigns of the politicians running for election this year.
This isn’t about confronting the inevitable reality that our contemporary prison system in which almost one out of every one hundred citizens in America is now imprisoned within this insatiable beast of a prison industry. This isn’t about the common sense conclusion that America simply cannot sustain the cost of incarcerating so many without compromising the quality of other public services such as the public education system and general infrastructure (roads, highways, bridges etc) and many other services provided for by the state.
Rather, this is really about the fundamental truth that the entire system has become politically corrupted by the private interests. Perhaps now these prison employees who have believed these conservative politicians are their “friends” will finally wake up and realize that they’ve been sold out as when it comes down to it they are just as expendable as the prisoners. Myself I’m convinced that both America’s and Florida’s prison industry represents a substantial threat to the survival of our constitutional democracy itself and politics have corrupted this virtual prison industry. When imprisoning our citizens through for-profit ventures becomes accepted practice, then America itself can never again be “The land of the free”
Michael Lambrix
Death row Florida
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