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Written by Brenda Shoop
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Thursday, 06 March 2008 |
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The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery?BY VICKY PELAEZ (Taken from El Diario-La Prensa, New York) HUMAN rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million – mostly Black and Hispanic – are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.  There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country. According to California Prison Focus, "no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens." The figures show that the United States has locked up more people than any other country: a half million more than China, which has a population five times greater than the U.S. Statistics reveal that the United States holds 25% of the world’s prison population, but only 5% of the world’s people. From less than 300,000 inmates in 1972, the jail population grew to 2 million by the year 2000. In 1990 it was one million. Ten years ago there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are 100, with 62,000 inmates. It is expected that by the coming decade, the number will hit 360,000, according to reports. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 06 March 2008 )
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Written by Brenda Shoop
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Thursday, 06 March 2008 |
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It's 2008, and that teenager drug marijuana is still raping our children. But why does that have to be illegal? According to The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), some person wrote to Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin "asking him to justify why medicinal cannabis is still illegal" after the American College of Physicians recommended it shouldn't be. It merited a hilarious reply from Harkin, which noted many of pot's notorious doom scenarios: "the small child whose parents are so addicted to illegal drugs that they sell everything including perhaps their own children to obtain a fix." Harkin knows the routine: smoke up, eat gyro, play Legend of Zelda, sell children to pirates for more pot, repeat. The full, horrifying letter: Dear XXXX:
Thank you for contacting me. I am always glad to hear from you.
I do not believe the answer in solving this country's problem of drug abuse and the violence associated with drug trafficking is to make drugs legal. I have seen too much of the ill effects of these illegal drugs on our nation's young people, as well as this country's law enforcement officers, to believe the solution is to make these drugs more readily available by legalizing them.
Marijuana is often the drug singled out for legalization. However, marijuana is not the recreational drug that many believe it to be. In a study completed by the Drug Abuse Warning Network, the number of marijuana related emergencies has nearly reached the level of cocaine related emergencies. As this statistic indicates, marijuana use often has fatal consequences.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 06 March 2008 )
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Written by Brenda Shoop
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Monday, 03 March 2008 |
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A friend received a personal letter today from Governor Don Siegelman from his prison cell in Louisiana. A Personal Note From Jailed Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman  I got the following letter today, handwritten by former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman from his federal prison cell in Louisiana.
Maybe you've heard about the trumped up Bush regime charges leveled against Democratic former Gov. Siegelman for some time. 60 Minutes on February 24 aired an exposé on the combination of Washington-based and Alabama-based political operatives and corrupt federal judges and prosecutors who brought charges against Siegelman and jailed him for over 7 years in a blatant political prosecution unprecedented in recent American history.
Fifty-two former state attorneys general have asked Congress to investigate whether the prosecution of Governor Siegelman was pursued, not because of a crime, but because of politics (he was the most successful Democrat in Alabama).
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 04 March 2008 )
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Written by Brenda Shoop
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Friday, 29 February 2008 |
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This is a very long article. Lots of statistics. Not that you shouldn't read it, there is some really good information here. This article DOES miss a HUGE point, and that is the fact that "drug offenses" aren't technically "crimes." No one should be imprisoned or "punished" for any offense that didn't cause harm or injury to another. THAT'S the very definition of a crime. Look up corpus delicti. Or watch Mar Stevens' videos here>> So here's a better solution, N.C. Aizenman, how about using your contact at the Washington Post to print a story about THAT? Friday, February 29, 2008
Publication: The Washington Post
Author: N.C. Aizenman More than one in 100 adults in the United States is in jail or prison, an all-time high that is costing state governments nearly $50 billion a year and the federal government $5 billion more, according to a report released yesterday. With more than 2.3 million people behind bars, the United States leads the world in both the number and percentage of residents it incarcerates, leaving far-more-populous China a distant second, according to a study by the nonpartisan Pew Center on the States. The growth in prison population is largely because of tougher state and federal sentencing imposed since the mid-1980s. Minorities have been particularly affected: One in nine black men ages 20 to 34 is behind bars. For black women ages 35 to 39, the figure is one in 100, compared with one in 355 for white women in the same age group. The report compiled and analyzed data from several sources, including the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics and Bureau of Prisons and each state's department of corrections. It did not include individuals detained for noncriminal immigration violations. |
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Written by Brenda Shoop
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Friday, 30 November 2007 |
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First Up.....My Response:  America has 5% of the world's population, yet we also have 25% of the world's prison population. We incarcerate our own people more than any country in the world. How can we call ourselves a "superior society?"
Not only do Big Pharma and The Oil Industry not want cannabis legalized, True Drug Dealers don't want it legalized either! Medicine will be free, biodiesel made from hemp will fuel our cars, and the Black Market will be put out of business. Why go to ShadyTown if you can grow it yourself?
Then, we can stop incarcerating herbal healers who choose to avoid the criminal element and grow their own medicines. Cannabis is an herbal remedy, not an illicit drug, as many uninformed people still think. The hippies were RIGHT ALL ALONG!
Swallow the Red Pill and research it for yourself!
Rev Brenda Shoop, RN, BSN
Robertsdale, AL |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 30 November 2007 )
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