{"id":18742,"date":"2011-09-24T05:49:53","date_gmt":"2011-09-24T12:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/?p=18742"},"modified":"2013-09-20T06:20:40","modified_gmt":"2013-09-20T13:20:40","slug":"a-glimpse-into-the-prison-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/a-glimpse-into-the-prison-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"A Glimpse Into The Prison Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

SherryPeelJackson.org<\/a> | Most Americans have been taught to think that everyone in prison is guilty of something.\u00a0 I have met many people, before and during prison, that are adamant that anyone in a jail or prison cell \u201cmust have done something wrong\u201d.\u00a0 Nothing could be further from the truth.\u00a0 In my experience, filtering out the obvious liars, at least 20% of the women that I talked to in prison were innocent, and at least another 10% were guilty of something, but the sentence didn\u2019t fit the \u201ccrime\u201d.<\/p>\n

You may shrug your shoulders and think, \u201cwell, I\u2019m Okay.\u00a0 I would never do anything to get put in the slammer.\u201d\u00a0 In reality, you don\u2019t have to do anything to be sentence to prison.<\/p>\n

Here are a few stories of people I actually know.\u00a0 Names have been changed, but not the circumstances.<\/p>\n

Peggy Smith is a 64-year-old grandmother.\u00a0 She loved her family and did everything she could to make them comfortable.\u00a0 Peggy\u2019s 22-year-old grandson went from job to job and got in trouble from time to time.\u00a0 He would call Peggy and ask to borrow her car sometimes.\u00a0 He would say that either he had a job interview or that he needed to get to work.\u00a0 Peggy let him use her car often since she wasn\u2019t driving as much anymore.\u00a0 One day the police showed up at Peggy\u2019s door.\u00a0 She was 51 at the time.\u00a0 They said that her car had been used in drug deals.\u00a0 They asked her questions about her car and her grandson.\u00a0 She admitted that the car belonged to her, but she said she didn\u2019t know anything about her grandson dealing in drugs.\u00a0 Peggy was asked to testify against her grandson and she wouldn\u2019t.\u00a0 Peggy was tried and sentenced to 15 years in prison, just for letting her grandson borrow her car.\u00a0 Now she is suffering from dementia.\u00a0 She will be released soon.<\/p>\n

Jamie Nevis is a 55-year-old professional.\u00a0 She has a Masters degree and a PhD.\u00a0 For years she worked very hard in her government job, traveling around the state giving lectures on the subjects in her field, and managing a small staff.\u00a0 One day Jamie got a visit from government agents.\u00a0 Apparently, state funds had been embezzled from the grant that she managed.\u00a0 She told them that she knew nothing about it.\u00a0 The agents told her that they knew that it was her assistant that embezzled the money through a dummy corporation, but she should have known about it and was thus, just as guilty.\u00a0 Jamie refused to take any blame for her assistant\u2019s actions.\u00a0 She even proved that her assistant forged her signature on several checks.\u00a0 The agents told her that they wanted her to plea to conspiring with her assistant, and that she would serve a 9 month sentence.\u00a0 Jamie refused to plea, stating that she was innocent.\u00a0 After $250,000 in legal fees, lawyers that threw her under the bus and government expert witnesses that were caught in lies on the stand, Jamie was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to 7 years in prison!\u00a0 The assistant didn\u2019t serve any time because this woman was used to testify against Jamie, stating that Jamie knew that she was signing checks in her name.\u00a0 Jamie is due to be released in 2015.<\/p>\n

\"microphone\"<\/p>\n

Joan Cercal worked at an insurance company.\u00a0 She was the supervisor over the mail department and the janitorial staff.\u00a0 Joan\u2019s bosses were being investigated by the Feds for insurance fraud.\u00a0 She was questioned, and for a while nothing came of it.\u00a0 Then, to her surprise, she was indicted along with the officers and several other employees.\u00a0 When she asked why she was indicted the answer was, \u201cbecause you are a supervisor and you should have known that fraud was taking place in this company.\u201d\u00a0 Joan received a 5 year sentence.<\/p>\n

Lisa Brock ran an investment firm.\u00a0 She had certifications in two different countries and was approved by the various regulators.\u00a0 One day someone decided that Lisa\u2019s company was no longer acceptable. (Maybe not enough people were losing money.)\u00a0 She was indicted for conspiracy and money laundering.\u00a0 She told the government that she would never plead guilty because she had all the proper regulations and certifications, and her company was totally legal.\u00a0 She was told that if she didn\u2019t take the plea her sister would be indicted also, and there would be nobody left to care for her invalid mother.\u00a0 Lisa took the plea and received a 5 year sentence.\u00a0 Her sister is there to take care of her mother, who comes to visit at least once a month. Lisa is due to be released in 2014. In addition, her company was never shut down.\u00a0 It is now being run by someone with government ties!<\/p>\n

\"Wheelchair\"<\/p>\n

These are but a few of the stories of women that did nothing wrong but were caught up in a corrupt system of people wanting the \u201cbig fish\u201d for promotions.\u00a0 Many, after winning several large cases, receive promotions and monetary rewards.<\/p>\n

Most people have also been told that to feed and house each prisoner costs the \u201ctaxpayers\u201d $36,000 per year, or some similar figure. I am here to tell you that you need to clear your mind of visions of inmates walking around with new clothes, shoes, and electronic equipment, eating steak on your dime.\u00a0 The bulk of that money goes to companies that contract with the prison system and received large amounts of money for substandard products.\u00a0 Here\u2019s how it goes:<\/p>\n

A prison or group of prisons buys products in bulk.\u00a0 The price you would pay for that widget may be $5 each, but the prison contract says they will pay $9 for the same or a lesser quality item.\u00a0 These items are then shipped to the prisons for the prisoners to use.<\/p>\n

The prisoners themselves have a chance to buy items at what\u2019s called commissary.\u00a0 These items are often not name brands, but cost much more.\u00a0 For example, a jar of Royal Crown hair oil that costs $1.00 in the store cost me $5.62 in one of the facilities in which I was housed. Also, sweat suites costs $40 when I could have grabbed one at Wal-Mart for $15.\u00a0 The commissary at the prison complex in which I was housed was reported to have grossed $9,000,000 a year.<\/p>\n

\"Products\"<\/p>\n

In addition, the food is not of a quality that you would eat.\u00a0 Much of the food is often donated.\u00a0 I can\u2019t tell you the number of times I saw molded bread on my plate and on other\u2019s plates. And oranges that looked like they had the mange.\u00a0 Companies must get a tax write off for donating food to the prisons.<\/p>\n

AND WE WON\u2019T GET INTO THE HEALTHCARE ISSUE!@<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now there are even private prisons out there.\u00a0 I spent a few months in a detention center that was actually run by a company called the GEO Group, Inc.\u00a0 When I had my good friend, the late Fred Marshall Jr. look it up, turns out they also ran Guantanamo Bay!<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.geogroup.com\/index.asp<\/a><\/p>\n

Prison is an industry, one of the largest and most powerful in the country.\u00a0 There are millions profiting from the women I mentioned earlier in the letter.\u00a0 There are thousands of jobs depending on those same women and many other men and women spending years away from their families under extremely debilitating and humiliation conditions.\u00a0 There are unions within the prison system that relentlessly fight against every effort on the part of families and advocacy groups to reduce the sentences of non-violent offenders and implement early release programs.\u00a0 They call it job security.<\/p>\n

The problem as I see it is that people are generally apathetic when it comes to prisons.\u00a0 However, now that the United States has more prisoners in federal and state prisons than ALL other countries combined, maybe somebody will wake up and notice that it\u2019s not about punishment or rehabilitation, it\u2019s about MONEY!<\/p>\n

I pray that this little glimpse into the prison industry awakens your mind to understand that it could be you; it could be your child or your grandchild, anytime, anywhere.\u00a0 Greed doesn\u2019t discriminate.<\/p>\n

Finally, while sitting in a prison bed one day, this train of thought came to mind:<\/p>\n

Many, in and out of government, have been fighting the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for years.\u00a0 Groups like the NRA have fought for Americans to keep these rights.\u00a0 Now, there is a back door hanging wide open to take away those rights for good! When a person is made a felon they are supposedly no longer allowed to own or possess a gun\/firearm.\u00a0 This new felon can\u2019t even live in a house that contains a gun.<\/p>\n

Well, if they<\/strong> produce a felon in every household, which is what\u2019s happening now from the gardener to the grandmother, then no one will be able to own or possess a \u201cfirearm\u201d, or have one in any household, thus wiping out the Second Amendment without passing any new law.\u00a0 Pause and think about that!<\/p>\n

\"Heston\"<\/p>\n

Until next time, when we will discuss the political and economic climate of our day,<\/p>\n

Sherry<\/p>\n


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Also See:<\/p>\n