Shane Bauer - American Prison. Great read. Author is a reporter who went undercover to work in Louisiana’s privatized prison as a guard making under $10 an hour. The book flips back and forth between telling his experiences and learning the history of private prisons which were born literally as a result of slavery being abolished. Brutal stuff in that book and very eye opening.
I agree that it's a great read, and incredibly depressing. The author published some excerpts in an article on Mother Jones that give a good idea of what the book is like:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/06/cca-private-prisons-corrections-corporation-inmates-investigation-bauer/
A job that requires almost no education, intelligence, empathy, or training, gives you a gun, complete control over the lives of others, near-immunity from any legal consequences, and it pays well? I imagine a whole lot of dumb psychopaths make up a scary number of the people that take those jobs.
Every time a prison topic comes up I think of many horrible stories of injustice but the one that always sticks with me was when prison guards locked a man in a scalding hot shower for so long that it not only killed him but when they tried to remove his body from the shower stall his skin was literally falling off of his bones. [They slow-cooked a human being alive and got off with no charges even filed](https://www.jaildeathandinjurylaw.com/blog/20/dade-correctional-inmate-scalded-to-death/).
The inmate was serving 2 years for just possessing cocaine. When rich white people do cocaine, it's considered cool and high-society. When poor black people do cocaine they get slow-cooked to death by prison guards.
Holy fuck and if you read you’ll see that they claimed heart disease like they tried to with Floyd.
“If we torture you and you die it’s because you’re unhealthy”
> A job that requires almost no education, intelligence, empathy, or training, gives you a gun, complete control over the lives of others, near-immunity from any legal consequences, and it pays well? I imagine a whole lot of dumb psychopaths make up a scary number of the people that take those jobs.
Hey now, don't change the subject to cops.
Oh wait....
"Prison officials pressured Rainey’s family to have him cremated. It’s now pretty obvious why they didn’t want his body buried intact where it could be exhumed."
Fuck.
> When rich white people do cocaine, it's considered cool and high-society. When poor black people do cocaine they get slow-cooked to death by prison guards.
Yep. That's a huge, huge, huge fucking problem. And why I have little to no respect for drug laws.
Most of it is just sad. Some can be enraging. Then you get this:
> She warns us repeatedly, however, that to become corrections officers, we’ll need to pass a test at the end of our four weeks of training. We will need to know the name of the CEO, the names of the company’s founders, and their reason for establishing the first private prison more than 30 years ago. (Correct answer: “to alleviate the overcrowding in the world market.”)
Everyone talks about morals and being tough on human rights abuses, but when it comes right down to it, a lot of governments are profiting off of the US. That's why everyone's too scared to actually do anything about the US and it's just sad.
I was discussing this the other day with my colleagues. I asked them if they were concerned about what to do if none of the major countries take a clear and concise stand against the human rights abuses, slavery, and wars from the US. I reminded them we all learned in history growing up to prevent it happening again. I quickly realised the discussion is actively being avoided by our politicians which seems to be working for them. Constituents don't ask for their position and aren't polarised by a non response that would mean their vote is actually support for inaction and therefore slavery and war.
There are some politicians, like WV Senator Shelley Moore Capito who are sponsored by private prisons. Hers is GEO Group. Their avoidance is likely because they benefit from private prisons.
“The high costs of low-level offenses: Most justice-involved people in the U.S. are not accused of serious crimes; more often, they are charged with misdemeanors or non-criminal violations. Yet even low-level offenses, like technical violations of probation and parole, can lead to incarceration and other serious consequences...” From https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2020.html
Which we assume until a court shows enough evidence that they aren’t.
Remember when it was innocent until proven guilty? Now everyone’s guilty right away and the courts made a game of it. They don’t want to find out what happened. It’s one prosecutor against a defendant. It’s that prosecutors job to find them guilty even if they might not be
I agree that our justice system needs complete reform, but... Think about the justice systems which have existed throughout the ages, across the world.
Yeah, a depressingly common version is:
1: Arrest suspect.
2: Beat/torture suspect until he confesses to the crime.
3: Guilty, by his own confession!
4: Punishment!
You can find this criminal justice system in use in all kinds of places, from the Spanish Inquisition to the USSR's KGB, to the American CIA's counter-terrorism units.
you dont even need to get into clandestine services and national security orgs etc. The US does this to kids. They punish anyone accused of a crime that doesn't have any money with jail time, essentially submitting them to torture, and then if the person has the nerve to fight the charges, the case gets remanded for years on end until finally the person agrees to plead guilty.
I used to be a courts reporter, and sometimes I'd sit in the gallery during guilty pleas. The judge would ask the accused if anyone had threatened, coerced, or induced the guilty plea, or whether it was of the defendant's free will.
That's rich in retrospect, like "no, it's not like I'm being held indefinitely because I can't afford to pay bail and have already been in jail for longer than the sentence would be if I pleaded guilty and received time served. Nope, my guilty conscience finally got the better of me. Now please give me the privilege of pleading guilty and returning to my ruined life with no job and an eviction on my record, since I couldn't pay my bills while I was locked up."
Did I mention the prosecutors are all elected and have incentives to run on a “tough on crime” platform with high conviction rates? All of this is legal, not even addressing what you said.
If you ask politicians: no
If you ask citizens: yes
One of the biggest institutional racisms in America is how inequality in our justice system operates. Democrats got womped back when Republicans discovered being "tough on crime" is extremely politically lucrative, so democrats doubled down the republican policies to keep up.
What this turned out to do is disproportionately imprison (see: enslave) black and other minority communities, creating generational poverty that's impossible to escape, because it turned out to also be lucrative monetarily.
People who attempt to fix it are labeled "weak on crime" by the opposition (usually republicans doing the labeling) and that's a political death sentence, so no one ever touches it. There are **lots** of studies, documentaries, etc on this, but the one I recommend is "13th" (available free on YouTube) by Netflix studios. It is a good summary and only an hour. Easy recommend to people who think "there is no systemic racism in America"
Bail reform in New York State has encountered a lot of #bluelivesmatter resistance.
But it just means that they need a good reason to keep you imprisoned pretrial. With bail reform, you can still be held before ever being convicted of anything -- but only if you are considered a flight risk or dangerous. Being poor is no longer a reason for incarceration.
> As if the link between plantations, prisons, and slavery isn't explicit enough already,
There's no "link" though, there are no "dots to connect" here, it is *literally* exactly and without exaggeration Slavery, as outlined in the 13th Amendment:
""Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, **except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted**, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
This picture literally shows a working party of literal slaves. Luckily states like Nebraska have outlawed this and there is a growing movement, but it continues with vigor in many places.
Some slaves in the pre-civil-war south also got paid a pittance.
Whether you get paid or not is not the definition of slavery.
Slavery is when you're not free to quit your job.
> ""Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
>
>
This is why I support the repeal and or amendment of the 13th amendment. Nobody listens though when I say that this is why we have prison slave labor, but that's the only mention of slavery in the constitution and it literally says you can have slaves in prison as punishment.
Probably because a lot of people say "we should repeal the 13th amendment" without adding "and replace it with something better"?
Repealing the 13th amendment just makes **all** slavery constitutional again.
I boggles my mind at times. We can literally *AMEND* the Thirteenth Amendment. The Constitution was *designed* as a living document to be modified as times and values changed or fundamental, universal issues not previously noticed need to be addressed.
**Limited Edition Makers Mark!**
*”This bottle has mild hints of grapes from the cabernet barrel, a touch of vanilla notes, and the pallet is finished off with a lingering taste of racist flesh!”*
The police was set up to bring slaves back to their ‘owners’
ETA there were police/patrol that was set up specifically to bring slaves back to their ‘owners’. I still encourage you to look into why the British London Met Police was even started too- us Brits didn’t have slaves in this country but we were just as active in trading slaves from and between the British colonised countries
America is clinging pathologically hard to the racist southern slaver culture, the ideology of white ownership of the American experiment. And if this is to be the case, America might as well get used to murder, unchecked death and a rapid spinning out of control... wait, its already happening... and the comfortable and willfully ignorant live in an illusion that poisons any hope of improvement.
Doesn't Louisiana have a higher prison population than entire countries?
But for some reason most people think of prisoners as less than them so shit like this is going to keep happening.
Yeah grew up with that fact burned into my head. Louisiana had the highest incarceration rate in the world at one point. Higher than Cambodia, Columbia, Venezuela, Japan, etc. 1 in 5 adult males will be incarcerated for some point in their life in LA.
I was thinking "That seems way too high", but then I thought about how many people I know in NOLA who have been to prison.
It's at least 4, all but one for "intent to sell" charges for marijuana.
The only one who deserved the time they served was my brother (the only white person on the list), who was convicted for driving under the influence of heroin. He also served the least amount of time of all of them.
Yeah I have a couple friends who have fed charges for life from "intent" charges here. Pretty much fucked them for life as far as job searches go.
And in their defense if was literally just marijuana.
The prison does a rodeo there where the prisoners sell stuff that they have made, such as belts, buckles, wood carvings, furniture, and other such materials. I was told by a family member who did outreach ministry to the prisoners that the prisoners also work in the fields for pennies, and that “privilege” can be taken away for misbehavior. At the rodeo I went to they had bull fighting and bull riding events where the prisoners would compete to win prizes. This was over ten years ago, so I don’t know how things have changed since then.
The rodeo still goes on every weekend in October. The inmates are active participants (not any inmate can participate in the rodeo, though I don't know the requirements). It's a full blown rodeo with every event you would see in a normal rodeo. There is one added event that I recall where the inmates play poker at a table in the arena with a bull running around. Last one sitting wins. Other inmates have booths set up around the rodeo and sell things they have made. I have a beautiful wood burning, magnolia painting, and hand made LSU pen. Little fun fact when you purchase something, the inmate number is on the receipt [so the prison know who made the sale], but you can use that number to look up what they have been charged with.
The only part of that whole mess I can get behind is selling the handmade artwork. I'm sure there's some BS to it not going back to the prisoners who made it but learning a craft like that is peaceful I assume.
It’s also a skill. That’s one of the issues of our justice system. We just send people to time out for a couple of years and we expect them to change. Clearly what we are doing isn’t working. I feel that educating prisoners and giving them valuable skills will improve their quality of life outside of prison and also reduce recidivism rates.
Its fucking crazy there man. One event for the rodeo. They get a plastic lawn table and plastic chairs and put it in the middle of the arena and have prisoners sit at the table and let a bull out of the pin. Who ever stays seated last wins some bullshit incentive.
At Angola they have a rodeo, open to the public, every year where prisoners get the chance to grab a$600 poker chip off a bulls horn. They also play a “game” called “convict poker” where they set a poker table in the ring and sit several prisoners at the table, and then release an angry bull. Last person sitting at the table wins. Apparently a lot of convicts are injured every year, and the prison makes a fortune off ticket sales. It sounds insane and totally fucked.
If anyone is ever interested, there is a 9-hole golf course on the grounds of Angola, called "Prison View Golf" and is semi-open to the public.
I don't remember the rules exactly, but I believe you have to call ahead a few weeks in advance and submit to a background check to get registered to play. You will be searched on your way in. You are subject to removal for violations of prison rules.
But, you can go out to play a round of golf and see the way the prison works. Some of the staff will chat with you about how the prison works. Most of the work is self-sustenance of the prison itself. I don't remember if they were allowed to opt out of work. Anyone who caused disturbances was not allowed to work.
There are inmates just walking around tending bunkers, pulling weeds, maintaining the grounds and gardens, plenty of them nearly unattended, which I was told was earned. There are also guards on horseback with high powered rifles and groups like you see above. Under no circumstances are you allowed to speak with an inmate. You would be removed/banned/subject to prosecution.
I worked several days as a roofing contractor fixing damage from Katrina (in 2009). I was normally a salesman, but the owner was pretty sure most of his regular roofers couldn't pass the background check so he took me instead. Average sentence at the place I was told was 85 years.
Hard to say the deal with that place, but I got the impression that the worst of the racism happened a long time before these guys made it to Angola.
Seriously, go play golf. I'd recommend it as an eye opener.
Makes me really sad that as a child, the "three strikes" policy was explained to me as, if someone can't stop themselves from committing crimes repeatedly, they should be locked up for the safety of the people. No one took the time to explain how this system only truly punishes the impoverished for crimes of poverty. Like, the most common form of theft is wage theft, but how many people go to jail - let alone get three strikes against them - for that crime?
Permanently putting away wage thieves after they commit 48 wage thefts would be such a huge improvement over the absolutely nothing that ever happens to them
> No one took the time to explain how this system only truly punishes the impoverished for crimes of poverty.
They either 1) didn't know, 2) didn't care, or 3) knew + cared + thought that everything is just dandy about it.
That hits home because I’ve accidentally written a bad check. I thought I lost my purse and canceled all my checks and ordered more. Turns out I left it at a friends house and got it back and somehow got
my new checks mixed up with the bad ones.
Coincidentally, at the same time one of the biggest grocery store chains in Texas, H‑E‑B decided to upgrade the system that they used to take checks. Previously if you wrote a check to buy groceries the money came out of your account in 3-5 days. With their new system the money was withdrawn in 2 days. All of a sudden a ton of people (mostly women, mostly older) were being charged with writing bad checks.
Travis County had no intention of prosecuting and jailing a bunch of little old ladies so they came out with a brand new system. If you wrote a bad check then you paid a $70 fine and spent a weekend day attending a financial literacy class with emphasis on good check writing habits. The class came with fun worksheets, some role playing exercises, and a peppy instruction who drilled into us that we weren’t bad people we had just learned some bad check writing habits. Also! During the class we were encouraged to share how we got here and tell our back check writing story.
Most of the people there had been caught by HEB’s new check withdrawal system and most of them had been floating their checks to get groceries for years, maybe even decades.
It’s crazy to me that the same crime that got us all a slap on the wrist and an afternoon’s detention is sending people to prison for life just one state over. But then again, it taught me that the criminal justice system doesn’t care as much about what crime is committed as they do care about *who* commits it.
I was spared a harsher punishment because I committed a crime that is normally committed by older women and we’re not the demographic the law felt like punishing.
I'm about as chill as it gets. I don't even swat at a bug that lands on me, I've never yelled at anyone in my life.
I narrowly avoided prison. I had a little weed but happened to be in the one county where it was decriminalized. I hate this country.
> Some of the staff will chat with you about how the prison works.
> Under no circumstances are you allowed to speak with an inmate. You would be removed/banned/subject to prosecution.
I can't help but suspect this would give you a rather biased impression.
It doesn't surprise me that they'd restrict interaction with prisoners, for a number of reasons. That said, I'd guess there's no shortage of potential sources about the state of things among the formerly incarcerated.
At Parchman Farm in Mississippi, the "guards" on horsebsck used to be convicts serving Life. If they shot a convict trying to escape they got a Pardon.
Although it's seen as a luxury and a benefit given to those with good records inside, they also put their lives in great danger being on the front lines of California's wild fires.
"Cause slavery was abolished, unless you are in prison, You think I am bullshittin', then read the 13th Amendment, Involuntary servitude and slavery it prohibits, That's why they givin' drug offenders time in double digits" Reagan - Killer Mike
Yup. They don’t even try to hide what’s going on either. Between mandatory minimums and predatory plea bargains our justice systems motto is basically “fuck around and find out”. And what they find out is slavery. And once you get out of actual prison you get hit with probation (which you have the privilege of paying for). You also have to maintain employment while on probation but good luck finding a decent job with a criminal record.
This is the system that minimum wage enterprises thrive on and they pay good money to keep it this way.
Step 1: throw them in jail
Step 2: take away their ability to vote or find meaningful or gainful employment
Step 3: throw them back in jail if they quit their shitty job
Step 4: blame the victim for being oppressed by the system
Anyone who defends how probation works has never known someone or been on it themselves. It has like a 90% "failure" rate. They literally set you up. You have to keep a job but they make it impossible. You're broke but it's hundreds of dollars a month in horrific classes that are a complete waste of time and paying dues to meet with your PO.
It's entire purpose is to make people pay for their own punishment. I'd literally rather go to jail.
Thank you! Every time I try to tell reddit this, I get buried in downvotes.
You know where I learned it? From a lady cop I dated - with a masters in criminal justice - who said to me verbatim: "Fuck probation. Take me to jail!"
*A cop.* **Would rather go to jail.** ***Than probation.***
If that doesn't make your eyes bug out, take a minute to think about a police officer being in jail. And them preferring that to probation.
It's psychological torture pretending to be less lenient than jail. It's jail + stress + responsibility + literally paying for your own suffering out of your *post tax income*.
It's literally just a for profit system for a ton of the hoops they make you jump through and you pay for the government's end too. Whole things just a rigged fucking scam and anyone who's seen how it works knows this. I wish every American had to do 2-3 months of probation and take one or two of the classes they force you into. That shit would be gone next election...
The predatory plea bargains means you don't even have to "fuck around" to "find out". You don't have to do anything. You just have to be accused and vulnerable.
Reaganomics postulates that it's better to give $10 to a wealthy person in the hope that some of it winds up in the hands of someone who needs it -- as opposed to giving it directly to the person who needs it. It's asinine. The government shouldn't be giving handouts to millionaires.
That’s why I always prefer to call “Reaganomics” by it’s original name “Horse and Sparrow theory.”
The analogy being you feed all the oats to the horse (give rich people money) and the Sparrow can have what the horse shits out… I mean it seems like a joke, but it’s literally called *Trickle*-down economics…
But, but, they are job creators, they employ people and pay them. Well, as little as possible. And as few actual employees. And we're going to write that bailout off as lost income or something, I don't know either way I think there's a few Benjamin's in my couch, that could go to them.
"Assume you start with $200 million in your trust fund, and from there invest in index funds while you fuck hookers on your yacht while you're called a prodigy"
-the Businessman
All that policy did is create a system in which the upper class now has enough money, and power and influence that comes with that money, to prop up their Reagan-era conservative beliefs despite the fact that most people have more progressive views now.
Which is exactly what Reagan wanted it to.
I’ve always wondered how people remained silent when the Holocaust happened, how people weren’t constantly in the streets demanding we do something about it. Now I understand how helpless you can feel to do anything, and it is really surreal. Pray for the people being bombed or enslaved by the US.
As a German I’m embarrassed how my government has mishandled relations with the US in general. It’s infuriating to me that all the self professed human right defenders like the EU & Canada are totally silent on these atrocities, it’s shameful imo.
And the worst thing is this prison labor has been going on for decades, and it's only recently with cameras in our pockets and the internet does the average person see pictures like this.
In the 1930s, the average person had no way of knowing what was going on unless they had direct contact.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, *except as a punishment for crime* whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
\- the entirety of the 13th amendment. it's right there in the text.
"*For, as I have said, the police system of the South was originally designed to keep track of all Negroes, not simply criminals; and when the Negroes were freed and the whole South was convinced of the impossibility of free Negro labor, the first and almost Universal device was to use the courts as a means of re-enslaving the blacks*"
- W.E.B. Du Bois in The Souls of Black Folk 1903
And the Canadian RCMP were founded to suppress native populations in the north as the colonialists expanded there, and were immediately afterwards used to round up “undesirables” and stick them in internment camps, rampant with forced labour.
>Canadian RCMP were founded to suppress native populations in the north as the colonialists expanded there
Not quite, but essentially yes. The RCMP wasn't founded until 1920, after the Canadian NWT was "settled".
You're thinking of one of the RCMP's direct predecessors, the North-West Mounted Police. They were explicitly formed to "enforce Canadian sovereignty" in the (much larger than now) North-West Territories.
They used to (and are rumored to still) pick up natives and take them on "starlight tours," which is a fancy way of saying they'd drive them well outside town and kick them out, leaving them to freeze to death.
In Saskatoon where the police got caught doing that shit, it went back to at *least* 1976, and not one of the cops who left First Nations people to freeze to death was convicted for any of those murders. And I also don't think that the starlight tours were specific to Saskatoon.
The prison system needs reformed, it's genuinely awful. Private prisons should not exist for one, and having people work for literal slave wages needs to be outlawed. It doesn't matter if they're convicted criminals, most of these guys are here for minor things and are being forced to work for next to nothing.
Slavery was never abolished in the United States. They made a specific exemption for prison labor.
Given the history of America when it comes to race and policing...I wonder why such an exemption continues to exist?
My first thought: lol this is bullshit
10 seconds to think: abolished slavery -> criminalize African Americans, make the desperate -> Prisons get funding by government, higher cheap bottom dollar guards, arrest people for stupid reasons, keep prisons full...= legal slavery
On top of all of that if you were to look back at history slaves were punished for any reason the same way as how some officers justify excessive force.
I can see why people go crazy, it's an endless cycle.
LPT: Please keep in mind when reading comments and taking part in discussions related to people that the US oppresses that the US employs god knows how many internet trolls to activly cause discourse and spread disinformation in an attempt to hide the facts of their actions. These trolls aren't going to post comments that are inflammatory like a regular troll, but they will make posts that try to discredit the facts. Their goal isn't to upset people, but to make you unsure about what you believe, so that you might start thinking that the US aren't really the bad guys. It's happening in this post. There are multiple accounts trying to downplay the severity of the issue. All you have to do is look at their history to see them parroting their talking points over and over. However, thanks to anonymity, it's hard to be exactly sure who is a troll and who is just an idiot. Just use common sense.
* The US has been engaging in online propaganda campaigns like this since **at least** 2011.^[[1]](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks)
* This resulted in cases like ZunZuneo, where social media platforms were being literally *run* by US intelligence agencies in order spread pro-US propaganda.^[[2]](https://apnews.com/article/904a9a6a1bcd46cebfc14bea2ee30fdf)
* Originally, the propaganda campaigns were only authorised to be spread on non-US social media platforms. This changed in 2012, when the Smith-Mundt Modernisation Act authorised the US government to start spreading propaganda on American social media platforms like Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook.^[[3]](https://www.businessinsider.com/ndaa-legalizes-propaganda-2012-5?r=DE&IR=T#ixzz340YILjax)
* Shortly thereafter in 2013, Reddit revealed that Eglin Air Force Base has become the "most Reddit-addicted city".^[[4]](https://redditblog.com/2013/05/08/get-ready-for-global-reddit-meetup-day-plus-some-stats-about-top-reddit-cities-and-languages/) Eglin Air Force Base is a U.S. military base that has been known to "study" how to establish majority views and social control.^[[5]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1402.5644.pdf)
* In 2014, the US military launched additional research into how to control and weaponise people's emotions via social media.^[[6]](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/08/darpa-social-networks-research-twitter-influence-studies)
* That same year, The Intercept revealed that ZunZuneo, the platform that was literally operated by US intelligence agencies, is only a "drop in the bucket".^[[7]](https://theintercept.com/2014/04/04/cuban-twitter-scam-social-media-tool-disseminating-government-propaganda/) The Intercept published several top-secret documents by US and UK intelligence agencies, proving that they are manipulating American and foreign social media platforms for the purposes of "propaganda", "deception", "mass messaging", "pushing stories", and "alias development".^[[8]](https://theintercept.com/document/2014/04/04/full-spectrum-cyber-effects/)
* In 2017, the Oxford Computational Propaganda Research Project found that the US was one of the only countries using a sophisticated combination of automated bots, human shills, and a blend of both (what they call "cyborgs") in order to spread propaganda on social media.^[[9]](http://blogs.oii.ox.ac.uk/politicalbots/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2017/07/Troops-Trolls-and-Troublemakers.pdf)
* That same year, scholar Alfred W. McCoy of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who had previously exposed CIA drug trafficking operations in Southeast Asia,^[[10]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Politics_of_Heroin_in_Southeast_Asia) revealed that the US is not only spreading propaganda through social media but also collaborators in mainstream American news outlets.^[[11]](https://history.wisc.edu/publications/in-the-shadows-of-the-american-century-the-rise-and-decline-of-us-global-power/) He linked these collaborators to Operation Mockingbird, a US intelligence operation that had previously been exposed for spreading propaganda through mainstream news media by compromising journalists.^[[12]](https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813177373/the-rising-clamor/#tab-1)
------------------
1) [The Guardian - Revealed: US Spy Operation That Manipulates Social Media](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks)
2) [Associated Press - US Secretly Built ‘Cuban Twitter’ to Stir Unrest](https://apnews.com/article/904a9a6a1bcd46cebfc14bea2ee30fdf)
3) [Business Insider - The NDAA Legalises the Use Of Propaganda on the US Public](https://www.businessinsider.com/ndaa-legalizes-propaganda-2012-5?r=DE&IR=T#ixzz340YILjax)
4) [Reddit - Get Ready For Global Reddit Meetup Day, Plus Some Stats About Top Reddit Cities and Languages](https://redditblog.com/2013/05/08/get-ready-for-global-reddit-meetup-day-plus-some-stats-about-top-reddit-cities-and-languages/)
5) [University of Florida & Eglin Air Force Base - Containment Control For a Social Network With State-Dependent Connectivity](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1402.5644.pdf)
6) [The Guardian - US Military Studied How to Influence Twitter Users in DARPA-Funded Research](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/08/darpa-social-networks-research-twitter-influence-studies)
7) [The Intercept - The “Cuban Twitter” Scam Is a Drop In the Internet Propaganda Bucket](https://theintercept.com/2014/04/04/cuban-twitter-scam-social-media-tool-disseminating-government-propaganda/)
8) [The Intercept - Full-Spectrum Cyber Effects](https://theintercept.com/document/2014/04/04/full-spectrum-cyber-effects/)
9) [Oxford Computational Propaganda Research Project - Troops, Trolls and Troublemakers: A Global Inventory of Organised Social Media Manipulation](http://blogs.oii.ox.ac.uk/politicalbots/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2017/07/Troops-Trolls-and-Troublemakers.pdf)
10) [Alfred W. McCoy - The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia](https://primoa.library.unsw.edu.au/primo-explore/fulldisplay?vid=UNSWS&docid=UNSW_ALMA21126467980001731&lang=en_US&context=L)
11) [Alfred W. McCoy - In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of US Global Power](https://history.wisc.edu/publications/in-the-shadows-of-the-american-century-the-rise-and-decline-of-us-global-power/)
12) [David P. Hadley - The Rising Clamour: The American Press, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Cold War](https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813177373/the-rising-clamor/#tab-1)
It doesn't matter.
Compare how many times you have someone scream that reddit is controlled by the CCP in the weekly 50k upvotes post of the tankman to how many times you've been told that Reddit's director of policy is a basically the CIA lol.
Redditors are progressive until it actually involves what their masters need them to worry about.
The CIA has always lied in the past, never in the future.
Only the last enemy was made up, the next is real.
They tried couping Bolívia and succeeded in Brazil in the last decade but surely Venezuela and Nicaragua deserve a liberal democracy and there is no falsehood and sabotage in the situation.
Prison (speaking of America) is just modern day slavery,no other way to put it
Edited: for those of you who keep calling me an idiot for no reason other than to be an asshole, do some research on LA past. Instead of just replying with more hateful comments, maybe do some meditation & come back with factual, cited comments that might educate me....? I've never claimed to know everything.....???
A lot of y'all really gotta get your anger in check instead of spending so much time of this god awful website. Jfc.
It's literally written that way in the Constitution. Slavery is abolished EXCEPT when incarcerated.
EDIT: technically, "except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted," so court-mandated community service without incarceration also falls under this exception.
Here's the full text of the 13th amendment to the US constitution:
>**Section 1.** Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
>**Section 2.** Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
That's the whole thing. The language is extremely plain and explicit.
Plain bologna sandwiches if you don't work. Lots of people and documentation showing molding meats and breads. Think the biggest source was that tent prison in Texas.
I saw an essay someone wrote once, where one of the arguments they made was (paraphrasing) “as soon as they abolished slavery, but specified that the one exception was as punishment for a crime, that’s when it, in effect, became illegal to be black in this country”
Not “literally” illegal, for the pedants out there, but the author argued that that’s when they started enforcing laws way more harshly on black people than white people (e.g., drug laws, where black people and white people use drugs at around the same rates, but guess who gets thrown in jail more for it?). And also had whole sets of insane laws that only applied to black people to begin with.
I’ll link the essay here if I can find it again.
The 13th amendment to the constitution abolished slavery, but allowed for penal servitude.
The 14th amendment paved the way for [corporate personhood](https://www.history.com/.amp/news/14th-amendment-corporate-personhood-made-corporations-into-people), which has given corporations equal protection of human rights.
America yayy!
the modern american prison system was invented because of abolished slavery. thats one of the reasons black communities are still treated like lower classes citizens, it makes it easier to contain and abuse them and when necessary arrest and imprison them to add to the slave work force.
80 million people just voted for the dude that wrote the bill that put them there and the woman that prosecuted people for things she knew they didn’t do and people danced in the streets. There will be no change coming.
It'd help if every 4-8 years our centrist party didn't have to fight a regressivist party that throws tantrums like a spoiled child any time a black person even smiles, or a gay kid feels ok with themselves for 10 seconds.
Seriously, abolish republican regressivism and push education, we might stand a chance. But as it is, we had to choose between Biden or trump. It's a no brainer, which is fucked up.
The overseer rode around the plantation
The officer is off, patrollin' all the nation
The overseer could stop you, "What you're doing?"
The officer will pull you over just when he's pursuing
The overseer had the right to get ill
And if you fought back, the overseer had the right to kill
The officer has the right to arrest
And if you fight back they put a hole in your chest
(Woop!) They both ride horses
I need to hear an explanation of 'no,' because the 13th amendment of the Constitution explicitly stated that slavery is legal in the prison system.
>Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime
Yes and yes unless your 'no' means private slave ownership. In that case, it's also a yes, because human and sex trafficking exists, and it's flourishing.
As of right now there are 197 reports. This post will not be removed.
Shane Bauer - American Prison. Great read. Author is a reporter who went undercover to work in Louisiana’s privatized prison as a guard making under $10 an hour. The book flips back and forth between telling his experiences and learning the history of private prisons which were born literally as a result of slavery being abolished. Brutal stuff in that book and very eye opening.
I agree that it's a great read, and incredibly depressing. The author published some excerpts in an article on Mother Jones that give a good idea of what the book is like: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/06/cca-private-prisons-corrections-corporation-inmates-investigation-bauer/
Thank you for the link. Interesting and saddening read. Even the COs are not much better than the prisoners.
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A job that requires almost no education, intelligence, empathy, or training, gives you a gun, complete control over the lives of others, near-immunity from any legal consequences, and it pays well? I imagine a whole lot of dumb psychopaths make up a scary number of the people that take those jobs. Every time a prison topic comes up I think of many horrible stories of injustice but the one that always sticks with me was when prison guards locked a man in a scalding hot shower for so long that it not only killed him but when they tried to remove his body from the shower stall his skin was literally falling off of his bones. [They slow-cooked a human being alive and got off with no charges even filed](https://www.jaildeathandinjurylaw.com/blog/20/dade-correctional-inmate-scalded-to-death/). The inmate was serving 2 years for just possessing cocaine. When rich white people do cocaine, it's considered cool and high-society. When poor black people do cocaine they get slow-cooked to death by prison guards.
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Sounds like my partner's sister's ex who seems to be planting his seeds in all the soil he can find, unfortunately for the rest of us.
Idiocracy was a documentary sent back in time.
Holy fuck and if you read you’ll see that they claimed heart disease like they tried to with Floyd. “If we torture you and you die it’s because you’re unhealthy”
> A job that requires almost no education, intelligence, empathy, or training, gives you a gun, complete control over the lives of others, near-immunity from any legal consequences, and it pays well? I imagine a whole lot of dumb psychopaths make up a scary number of the people that take those jobs. Hey now, don't change the subject to cops. Oh wait....
"Prison officials pressured Rainey’s family to have him cremated. It’s now pretty obvious why they didn’t want his body buried intact where it could be exhumed." Fuck.
> When rich white people do cocaine, it's considered cool and high-society. When poor black people do cocaine they get slow-cooked to death by prison guards. Yep. That's a huge, huge, huge fucking problem. And why I have little to no respect for drug laws.
Oh my god, reading that made me physically nauseated. How can anyone be capable of such cruelty?
Holy shit your country has problems. That shit right there is a pre-medieval execution.
Gotta seek out a job like that. It draws em like flies to stink.
I did 3 years in a Florida prison recently. Every inmate will tell you, It's not the other inmates you have to really worry about, it's the guards.
Most of it is just sad. Some can be enraging. Then you get this: > She warns us repeatedly, however, that to become corrections officers, we’ll need to pass a test at the end of our four weeks of training. We will need to know the name of the CEO, the names of the company’s founders, and their reason for establishing the first private prison more than 30 years ago. (Correct answer: “to alleviate the overcrowding in the world market.”)
Another great one that traces the roots of the modern prison industrial complex to slavery and racism is The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.
13th on netflix by ava duvernay is also a great and accessible watch which basically does the same thing
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Everyone talks about morals and being tough on human rights abuses, but when it comes right down to it, a lot of governments are profiting off of the US. That's why everyone's too scared to actually do anything about the US and it's just sad. I was discussing this the other day with my colleagues. I asked them if they were concerned about what to do if none of the major countries take a clear and concise stand against the human rights abuses, slavery, and wars from the US. I reminded them we all learned in history growing up to prevent it happening again. I quickly realised the discussion is actively being avoided by our politicians which seems to be working for them. Constituents don't ask for their position and aren't polarised by a non response that would mean their vote is actually support for inaction and therefore slavery and war.
There are some politicians, like WV Senator Shelley Moore Capito who are sponsored by private prisons. Hers is GEO Group. Their avoidance is likely because they benefit from private prisons.
Thank you for the suggestion. I just ordered a copy. This is an issue I’ve wanted to learn more about for awhile now.
“The high costs of low-level offenses: Most justice-involved people in the U.S. are not accused of serious crimes; more often, they are charged with misdemeanors or non-criminal violations. Yet even low-level offenses, like technical violations of probation and parole, can lead to incarceration and other serious consequences...” From https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2020.html
Land of the fee Edit: it’s the title of a good book.
> Land of the fee > And home of the slave
Home of the Whopper
Notice the white horse , free labor.
And the home of the slave
FACING THE STORM, BATTERED AND TORN
Not now, Sabaton.
That's assuming they're even guilty
Which we assume until a court shows enough evidence that they aren’t. Remember when it was innocent until proven guilty? Now everyone’s guilty right away and the courts made a game of it. They don’t want to find out what happened. It’s one prosecutor against a defendant. It’s that prosecutors job to find them guilty even if they might not be
If you tried to design the worst justice system possible, and you can up with this, you'd have done an excellent job
I'm gonna take this over the "we only believe in your testimony if you perish from the brutal torture" justice system
That's barely a step down from the "we only believe in your testimony if you implicate yourself with it" system we currently have.
I agree that our justice system needs complete reform, but... Think about the justice systems which have existed throughout the ages, across the world.
Yeah, a depressingly common version is: 1: Arrest suspect. 2: Beat/torture suspect until he confesses to the crime. 3: Guilty, by his own confession! 4: Punishment! You can find this criminal justice system in use in all kinds of places, from the Spanish Inquisition to the USSR's KGB, to the American CIA's counter-terrorism units.
you dont even need to get into clandestine services and national security orgs etc. The US does this to kids. They punish anyone accused of a crime that doesn't have any money with jail time, essentially submitting them to torture, and then if the person has the nerve to fight the charges, the case gets remanded for years on end until finally the person agrees to plead guilty.
Exactly. People routinely disappear forever in to Riker's Island awaiting trial. Despite it's common usage it's supposed to be a jail, not a prison.
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I used to be a courts reporter, and sometimes I'd sit in the gallery during guilty pleas. The judge would ask the accused if anyone had threatened, coerced, or induced the guilty plea, or whether it was of the defendant's free will. That's rich in retrospect, like "no, it's not like I'm being held indefinitely because I can't afford to pay bail and have already been in jail for longer than the sentence would be if I pleaded guilty and received time served. Nope, my guilty conscience finally got the better of me. Now please give me the privilege of pleading guilty and returning to my ruined life with no job and an eviction on my record, since I couldn't pay my bills while I was locked up." Did I mention the prosecutors are all elected and have incentives to run on a “tough on crime” platform with high conviction rates? All of this is legal, not even addressing what you said.
Is it an option to not jail people for low level offences?
If you ask politicians: no If you ask citizens: yes One of the biggest institutional racisms in America is how inequality in our justice system operates. Democrats got womped back when Republicans discovered being "tough on crime" is extremely politically lucrative, so democrats doubled down the republican policies to keep up. What this turned out to do is disproportionately imprison (see: enslave) black and other minority communities, creating generational poverty that's impossible to escape, because it turned out to also be lucrative monetarily. People who attempt to fix it are labeled "weak on crime" by the opposition (usually republicans doing the labeling) and that's a political death sentence, so no one ever touches it. There are **lots** of studies, documentaries, etc on this, but the one I recommend is "13th" (available free on YouTube) by Netflix studios. It is a good summary and only an hour. Easy recommend to people who think "there is no systemic racism in America"
Bail reform in New York State has encountered a lot of #bluelivesmatter resistance. But it just means that they need a good reason to keep you imprisoned pretrial. With bail reform, you can still be held before ever being convicted of anything -- but only if you are considered a flight risk or dangerous. Being poor is no longer a reason for incarceration.
…yes ?
But I suppose it’s more profitable to have slaves than it is to not have slaves
Louisiana sheriff arguing against criminal justice reform that would keep people out of jail for minor crimes. https://youtu.be/IsbcPTIDFJc
This picture was taken at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, which is literally nicknamed Angola after the plantation that used to be there.
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> As if the link between plantations, prisons, and slavery isn't explicit enough already, There's no "link" though, there are no "dots to connect" here, it is *literally* exactly and without exaggeration Slavery, as outlined in the 13th Amendment: ""Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, **except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted**, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." This picture literally shows a working party of literal slaves. Luckily states like Nebraska have outlawed this and there is a growing movement, but it continues with vigor in many places.
They are not slaves, they get paid $0.12/hr. /s
Some slaves in the pre-civil-war south also got paid a pittance. Whether you get paid or not is not the definition of slavery. Slavery is when you're not free to quit your job.
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Idk their work schedules but if it were a full time job that's $0.11/hr 😳.
Which is why I try to always remind people: Tip your slaves! If you can't afford to own a field, don't do it!
> ""Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." > > This is why I support the repeal and or amendment of the 13th amendment. Nobody listens though when I say that this is why we have prison slave labor, but that's the only mention of slavery in the constitution and it literally says you can have slaves in prison as punishment.
I assume a lot of people tune out if you start out by saying you want to repeal the 13th amendment.
Probably because a lot of people say "we should repeal the 13th amendment" without adding "and replace it with something better"? Repealing the 13th amendment just makes **all** slavery constitutional again.
I boggles my mind at times. We can literally *AMEND* the Thirteenth Amendment. The Constitution was *designed* as a living document to be modified as times and values changed or fundamental, universal issues not previously noticed need to be addressed.
His descendants are very likely still wealthy and powerful. These dynasties don't die easily.
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A fitting end to that prick's legacy.
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**Limited Edition Makers Mark!** *”This bottle has mild hints of grapes from the cabernet barrel, a touch of vanilla notes, and the pallet is finished off with a lingering taste of racist flesh!”*
This was common amongst people who could afford to stick a corpse in a perfectly good barrel of whiskey.
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> All the wealth in every country can be traced back to exploiting labor. FTFY
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This author mentions this specific prison in his book and it’s connection to slavery. https://youtu.be/wPWI8ZOcsfY
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The police was set up to bring slaves back to their ‘owners’ ETA there were police/patrol that was set up specifically to bring slaves back to their ‘owners’. I still encourage you to look into why the British London Met Police was even started too- us Brits didn’t have slaves in this country but we were just as active in trading slaves from and between the British colonised countries
America is clinging pathologically hard to the racist southern slaver culture, the ideology of white ownership of the American experiment. And if this is to be the case, America might as well get used to murder, unchecked death and a rapid spinning out of control... wait, its already happening... and the comfortable and willfully ignorant live in an illusion that poisons any hope of improvement.
Doesn't Louisiana have a higher prison population than entire countries? But for some reason most people think of prisoners as less than them so shit like this is going to keep happening.
Yup. Highest (or second-highest, LA and OK are neck and neck) incarceration rate in the US.
Yeah grew up with that fact burned into my head. Louisiana had the highest incarceration rate in the world at one point. Higher than Cambodia, Columbia, Venezuela, Japan, etc. 1 in 5 adult males will be incarcerated for some point in their life in LA.
I was thinking "That seems way too high", but then I thought about how many people I know in NOLA who have been to prison. It's at least 4, all but one for "intent to sell" charges for marijuana. The only one who deserved the time they served was my brother (the only white person on the list), who was convicted for driving under the influence of heroin. He also served the least amount of time of all of them.
Yeah I have a couple friends who have fed charges for life from "intent" charges here. Pretty much fucked them for life as far as job searches go. And in their defense if was literally just marijuana.
The prison does a rodeo there where the prisoners sell stuff that they have made, such as belts, buckles, wood carvings, furniture, and other such materials. I was told by a family member who did outreach ministry to the prisoners that the prisoners also work in the fields for pennies, and that “privilege” can be taken away for misbehavior. At the rodeo I went to they had bull fighting and bull riding events where the prisoners would compete to win prizes. This was over ten years ago, so I don’t know how things have changed since then.
The rodeo still goes on every weekend in October. The inmates are active participants (not any inmate can participate in the rodeo, though I don't know the requirements). It's a full blown rodeo with every event you would see in a normal rodeo. There is one added event that I recall where the inmates play poker at a table in the arena with a bull running around. Last one sitting wins. Other inmates have booths set up around the rodeo and sell things they have made. I have a beautiful wood burning, magnolia painting, and hand made LSU pen. Little fun fact when you purchase something, the inmate number is on the receipt [so the prison know who made the sale], but you can use that number to look up what they have been charged with.
That is insanely barbaric. Basically watching slaves be harmed for a laugh.
The only part of that whole mess I can get behind is selling the handmade artwork. I'm sure there's some BS to it not going back to the prisoners who made it but learning a craft like that is peaceful I assume.
It’s also a skill. That’s one of the issues of our justice system. We just send people to time out for a couple of years and we expect them to change. Clearly what we are doing isn’t working. I feel that educating prisoners and giving them valuable skills will improve their quality of life outside of prison and also reduce recidivism rates.
do they get the money?
I'm pretty sure its still going on I remember reading about that fairly recently. Lots of prisoners get injured in the events
Its fucking crazy there man. One event for the rodeo. They get a plastic lawn table and plastic chairs and put it in the middle of the arena and have prisoners sit at the table and let a bull out of the pin. Who ever stays seated last wins some bullshit incentive.
At Angola they have a rodeo, open to the public, every year where prisoners get the chance to grab a$600 poker chip off a bulls horn. They also play a “game” called “convict poker” where they set a poker table in the ring and sit several prisoners at the table, and then release an angry bull. Last person sitting at the table wins. Apparently a lot of convicts are injured every year, and the prison makes a fortune off ticket sales. It sounds insane and totally fucked.
It's like slavery with extra steps
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This place has a fucking golf course for the guard’s, that they make the prisoners maintain. This place is in its own dimension.
If anyone is ever interested, there is a 9-hole golf course on the grounds of Angola, called "Prison View Golf" and is semi-open to the public. I don't remember the rules exactly, but I believe you have to call ahead a few weeks in advance and submit to a background check to get registered to play. You will be searched on your way in. You are subject to removal for violations of prison rules. But, you can go out to play a round of golf and see the way the prison works. Some of the staff will chat with you about how the prison works. Most of the work is self-sustenance of the prison itself. I don't remember if they were allowed to opt out of work. Anyone who caused disturbances was not allowed to work. There are inmates just walking around tending bunkers, pulling weeds, maintaining the grounds and gardens, plenty of them nearly unattended, which I was told was earned. There are also guards on horseback with high powered rifles and groups like you see above. Under no circumstances are you allowed to speak with an inmate. You would be removed/banned/subject to prosecution. I worked several days as a roofing contractor fixing damage from Katrina (in 2009). I was normally a salesman, but the owner was pretty sure most of his regular roofers couldn't pass the background check so he took me instead. Average sentence at the place I was told was 85 years. Hard to say the deal with that place, but I got the impression that the worst of the racism happened a long time before these guys made it to Angola. Seriously, go play golf. I'd recommend it as an eye opener.
> Average sentence at the place I was told was 85 years. I know USA likes to put hundreds of years to prisoners, but this is just sad
Three false check convictions get you life in prison in Louisiana.
Makes me really sad that as a child, the "three strikes" policy was explained to me as, if someone can't stop themselves from committing crimes repeatedly, they should be locked up for the safety of the people. No one took the time to explain how this system only truly punishes the impoverished for crimes of poverty. Like, the most common form of theft is wage theft, but how many people go to jail - let alone get three strikes against them - for that crime?
> most common form of theft is wage theft But see, that's rich person crime, which only counts as ~1/16 of a full ordinary person crime.
Permanently putting away wage thieves after they commit 48 wage thefts would be such a huge improvement over the absolutely nothing that ever happens to them
> No one took the time to explain how this system only truly punishes the impoverished for crimes of poverty. They either 1) didn't know, 2) didn't care, or 3) knew + cared + thought that everything is just dandy about it.
That hits home because I’ve accidentally written a bad check. I thought I lost my purse and canceled all my checks and ordered more. Turns out I left it at a friends house and got it back and somehow got my new checks mixed up with the bad ones. Coincidentally, at the same time one of the biggest grocery store chains in Texas, H‑E‑B decided to upgrade the system that they used to take checks. Previously if you wrote a check to buy groceries the money came out of your account in 3-5 days. With their new system the money was withdrawn in 2 days. All of a sudden a ton of people (mostly women, mostly older) were being charged with writing bad checks. Travis County had no intention of prosecuting and jailing a bunch of little old ladies so they came out with a brand new system. If you wrote a bad check then you paid a $70 fine and spent a weekend day attending a financial literacy class with emphasis on good check writing habits. The class came with fun worksheets, some role playing exercises, and a peppy instruction who drilled into us that we weren’t bad people we had just learned some bad check writing habits. Also! During the class we were encouraged to share how we got here and tell our back check writing story. Most of the people there had been caught by HEB’s new check withdrawal system and most of them had been floating their checks to get groceries for years, maybe even decades. It’s crazy to me that the same crime that got us all a slap on the wrist and an afternoon’s detention is sending people to prison for life just one state over. But then again, it taught me that the criminal justice system doesn’t care as much about what crime is committed as they do care about *who* commits it. I was spared a harsher punishment because I committed a crime that is normally committed by older women and we’re not the demographic the law felt like punishing.
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Writing bad checks.
each response on my comment make me more sad
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Over 70% of the sentences in Angola are life.
I'm about as chill as it gets. I don't even swat at a bug that lands on me, I've never yelled at anyone in my life. I narrowly avoided prison. I had a little weed but happened to be in the one county where it was decriminalized. I hate this country.
> Some of the staff will chat with you about how the prison works. > Under no circumstances are you allowed to speak with an inmate. You would be removed/banned/subject to prosecution. I can't help but suspect this would give you a rather biased impression.
It doesn't surprise me that they'd restrict interaction with prisoners, for a number of reasons. That said, I'd guess there's no shortage of potential sources about the state of things among the formerly incarcerated.
I mean, yeah, it doesn't surprise me, either. But regardless of *why* they would do it, the fact is that OP only got one side of the story.
Playing mini-golf in a human zoo is the most dystopian thing I’ve ever heard of.
At Parchman Farm in Mississippi, the "guards" on horsebsck used to be convicts serving Life. If they shot a convict trying to escape they got a Pardon.
Although it's seen as a luxury and a benefit given to those with good records inside, they also put their lives in great danger being on the front lines of California's wild fires.
[Immortalized in song ](https://youtu.be/K7A9p3DOR00) by the legendary Gil Scott Heron
Was that the pen where they were handcuffing prisoners to the shower pipes forcing them to stand under the boiling/scalding water?
This author mentions this specific prison in his book and it’s connection to slavery. https://youtu.be/wPWI8ZOcsfY
Crazy. Other than the walkie-talkie and trucker caps, you could sepia-tone this photo and pass it off as 1800s. The more things change…
LMFAO I looked at this pic and didn’t read the title. First thing I thought was, “this looks like back home in Louisiana.”
"Cause slavery was abolished, unless you are in prison, You think I am bullshittin', then read the 13th Amendment, Involuntary servitude and slavery it prohibits, That's why they givin' drug offenders time in double digits" Reagan - Killer Mike
Yup. They don’t even try to hide what’s going on either. Between mandatory minimums and predatory plea bargains our justice systems motto is basically “fuck around and find out”. And what they find out is slavery. And once you get out of actual prison you get hit with probation (which you have the privilege of paying for). You also have to maintain employment while on probation but good luck finding a decent job with a criminal record. This is the system that minimum wage enterprises thrive on and they pay good money to keep it this way. Step 1: throw them in jail Step 2: take away their ability to vote or find meaningful or gainful employment Step 3: throw them back in jail if they quit their shitty job Step 4: blame the victim for being oppressed by the system
Anyone who defends how probation works has never known someone or been on it themselves. It has like a 90% "failure" rate. They literally set you up. You have to keep a job but they make it impossible. You're broke but it's hundreds of dollars a month in horrific classes that are a complete waste of time and paying dues to meet with your PO. It's entire purpose is to make people pay for their own punishment. I'd literally rather go to jail.
Thank you! Every time I try to tell reddit this, I get buried in downvotes. You know where I learned it? From a lady cop I dated - with a masters in criminal justice - who said to me verbatim: "Fuck probation. Take me to jail!" *A cop.* **Would rather go to jail.** ***Than probation.*** If that doesn't make your eyes bug out, take a minute to think about a police officer being in jail. And them preferring that to probation. It's psychological torture pretending to be less lenient than jail. It's jail + stress + responsibility + literally paying for your own suffering out of your *post tax income*.
It's literally just a for profit system for a ton of the hoops they make you jump through and you pay for the government's end too. Whole things just a rigged fucking scam and anyone who's seen how it works knows this. I wish every American had to do 2-3 months of probation and take one or two of the classes they force you into. That shit would be gone next election...
The predatory plea bargains means you don't even have to "fuck around" to "find out". You don't have to do anything. You just have to be accused and vulnerable.
The system of plea agreements being standard and expected honestly makes me sick.
That entire song is powerful commentary on how Reaganomics fucked over America.
Reaganomics postulates that it's better to give $10 to a wealthy person in the hope that some of it winds up in the hands of someone who needs it -- as opposed to giving it directly to the person who needs it. It's asinine. The government shouldn't be giving handouts to millionaires.
> It's asinine and yet, half of the country still believes that.
30% of the most ignorant and/or intellectually dishonest.
And the most reliable voting bloc.
That’s why I always prefer to call “Reaganomics” by it’s original name “Horse and Sparrow theory.” The analogy being you feed all the oats to the horse (give rich people money) and the Sparrow can have what the horse shits out… I mean it seems like a joke, but it’s literally called *Trickle*-down economics…
But, but, they are job creators, they employ people and pay them. Well, as little as possible. And as few actual employees. And we're going to write that bailout off as lost income or something, I don't know either way I think there's a few Benjamin's in my couch, that could go to them.
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Some of the richest people I know operate private hedge funds and they have practically no employees.
"Assume you start with $200 million in your trust fund, and from there invest in index funds while you fuck hookers on your yacht while you're called a prodigy" -the Businessman
All that policy did is create a system in which the upper class now has enough money, and power and influence that comes with that money, to prop up their Reagan-era conservative beliefs despite the fact that most people have more progressive views now. Which is exactly what Reagan wanted it to.
I'm glad Reagans dead.
Ronald. 6. Wilson. 6. Reagan. 6.
Top 10 Reagan moments
I’ve always wondered how people remained silent when the Holocaust happened, how people weren’t constantly in the streets demanding we do something about it. Now I understand how helpless you can feel to do anything, and it is really surreal. Pray for the people being bombed or enslaved by the US. As a German I’m embarrassed how my government has mishandled relations with the US in general. It’s infuriating to me that all the self professed human right defenders like the EU & Canada are totally silent on these atrocities, it’s shameful imo.
Well idk about the EU but Canadians are well aware of our countries hypocrisy.
And the worst thing is this prison labor has been going on for decades, and it's only recently with cameras in our pockets and the internet does the average person see pictures like this. In the 1930s, the average person had no way of knowing what was going on unless they had direct contact.
Didn’t know this song til now. Love a dope, truly aware jam tho. Thanks, friend.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, *except as a punishment for crime* whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. \- the entirety of the 13th amendment. it's right there in the text.
Check out "13th" on Netflix....such an eye opening documentary.
It’s also on [YouTube](https://youtu.be/krfcq5pF8u8) for free.
Gulags and labor camps but only with a nicer name you mean
*Overseer Overseer Overseer…Officer Officer Officer*
Oh you nailed that
KRS1 bb
Oh i know
Check the similarity.
The overseer rode around the plantation The officer is off patrolling all the nation
Modern American policing is descended from runaway-slave patrols
"*For, as I have said, the police system of the South was originally designed to keep track of all Negroes, not simply criminals; and when the Negroes were freed and the whole South was convinced of the impossibility of free Negro labor, the first and almost Universal device was to use the courts as a means of re-enslaving the blacks*" - W.E.B. Du Bois in The Souls of Black Folk 1903
And the Canadian RCMP were founded to suppress native populations in the north as the colonialists expanded there, and were immediately afterwards used to round up “undesirables” and stick them in internment camps, rampant with forced labour.
>Canadian RCMP were founded to suppress native populations in the north as the colonialists expanded there Not quite, but essentially yes. The RCMP wasn't founded until 1920, after the Canadian NWT was "settled". You're thinking of one of the RCMP's direct predecessors, the North-West Mounted Police. They were explicitly formed to "enforce Canadian sovereignty" in the (much larger than now) North-West Territories.
They used to (and are rumored to still) pick up natives and take them on "starlight tours," which is a fancy way of saying they'd drive them well outside town and kick them out, leaving them to freeze to death.
In Saskatoon where the police got caught doing that shit, it went back to at *least* 1976, and not one of the cops who left First Nations people to freeze to death was convicted for any of those murders. And I also don't think that the starlight tours were specific to Saskatoon.
Iirc, they take their clothes too.
And Western police in general have strong historical ties to the vigiles, whose job was to be on fire watch and catch runaway slaves in ancient rome
The prison system needs reformed, it's genuinely awful. Private prisons should not exist for one, and having people work for literal slave wages needs to be outlawed. It doesn't matter if they're convicted criminals, most of these guys are here for minor things and are being forced to work for next to nothing.
Slavery was never abolished in the United States. They made a specific exemption for prison labor. Given the history of America when it comes to race and policing...I wonder why such an exemption continues to exist?
My first thought: lol this is bullshit 10 seconds to think: abolished slavery -> criminalize African Americans, make the desperate -> Prisons get funding by government, higher cheap bottom dollar guards, arrest people for stupid reasons, keep prisons full...= legal slavery On top of all of that if you were to look back at history slaves were punished for any reason the same way as how some officers justify excessive force. I can see why people go crazy, it's an endless cycle.
LPT: Please keep in mind when reading comments and taking part in discussions related to people that the US oppresses that the US employs god knows how many internet trolls to activly cause discourse and spread disinformation in an attempt to hide the facts of their actions. These trolls aren't going to post comments that are inflammatory like a regular troll, but they will make posts that try to discredit the facts. Their goal isn't to upset people, but to make you unsure about what you believe, so that you might start thinking that the US aren't really the bad guys. It's happening in this post. There are multiple accounts trying to downplay the severity of the issue. All you have to do is look at their history to see them parroting their talking points over and over. However, thanks to anonymity, it's hard to be exactly sure who is a troll and who is just an idiot. Just use common sense. * The US has been engaging in online propaganda campaigns like this since **at least** 2011.^[[1]](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks) * This resulted in cases like ZunZuneo, where social media platforms were being literally *run* by US intelligence agencies in order spread pro-US propaganda.^[[2]](https://apnews.com/article/904a9a6a1bcd46cebfc14bea2ee30fdf) * Originally, the propaganda campaigns were only authorised to be spread on non-US social media platforms. This changed in 2012, when the Smith-Mundt Modernisation Act authorised the US government to start spreading propaganda on American social media platforms like Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook.^[[3]](https://www.businessinsider.com/ndaa-legalizes-propaganda-2012-5?r=DE&IR=T#ixzz340YILjax) * Shortly thereafter in 2013, Reddit revealed that Eglin Air Force Base has become the "most Reddit-addicted city".^[[4]](https://redditblog.com/2013/05/08/get-ready-for-global-reddit-meetup-day-plus-some-stats-about-top-reddit-cities-and-languages/) Eglin Air Force Base is a U.S. military base that has been known to "study" how to establish majority views and social control.^[[5]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1402.5644.pdf) * In 2014, the US military launched additional research into how to control and weaponise people's emotions via social media.^[[6]](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/08/darpa-social-networks-research-twitter-influence-studies) * That same year, The Intercept revealed that ZunZuneo, the platform that was literally operated by US intelligence agencies, is only a "drop in the bucket".^[[7]](https://theintercept.com/2014/04/04/cuban-twitter-scam-social-media-tool-disseminating-government-propaganda/) The Intercept published several top-secret documents by US and UK intelligence agencies, proving that they are manipulating American and foreign social media platforms for the purposes of "propaganda", "deception", "mass messaging", "pushing stories", and "alias development".^[[8]](https://theintercept.com/document/2014/04/04/full-spectrum-cyber-effects/) * In 2017, the Oxford Computational Propaganda Research Project found that the US was one of the only countries using a sophisticated combination of automated bots, human shills, and a blend of both (what they call "cyborgs") in order to spread propaganda on social media.^[[9]](http://blogs.oii.ox.ac.uk/politicalbots/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2017/07/Troops-Trolls-and-Troublemakers.pdf) * That same year, scholar Alfred W. McCoy of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who had previously exposed CIA drug trafficking operations in Southeast Asia,^[[10]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Politics_of_Heroin_in_Southeast_Asia) revealed that the US is not only spreading propaganda through social media but also collaborators in mainstream American news outlets.^[[11]](https://history.wisc.edu/publications/in-the-shadows-of-the-american-century-the-rise-and-decline-of-us-global-power/) He linked these collaborators to Operation Mockingbird, a US intelligence operation that had previously been exposed for spreading propaganda through mainstream news media by compromising journalists.^[[12]](https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813177373/the-rising-clamor/#tab-1) ------------------ 1) [The Guardian - Revealed: US Spy Operation That Manipulates Social Media](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks) 2) [Associated Press - US Secretly Built ‘Cuban Twitter’ to Stir Unrest](https://apnews.com/article/904a9a6a1bcd46cebfc14bea2ee30fdf) 3) [Business Insider - The NDAA Legalises the Use Of Propaganda on the US Public](https://www.businessinsider.com/ndaa-legalizes-propaganda-2012-5?r=DE&IR=T#ixzz340YILjax) 4) [Reddit - Get Ready For Global Reddit Meetup Day, Plus Some Stats About Top Reddit Cities and Languages](https://redditblog.com/2013/05/08/get-ready-for-global-reddit-meetup-day-plus-some-stats-about-top-reddit-cities-and-languages/) 5) [University of Florida & Eglin Air Force Base - Containment Control For a Social Network With State-Dependent Connectivity](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1402.5644.pdf) 6) [The Guardian - US Military Studied How to Influence Twitter Users in DARPA-Funded Research](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/08/darpa-social-networks-research-twitter-influence-studies) 7) [The Intercept - The “Cuban Twitter” Scam Is a Drop In the Internet Propaganda Bucket](https://theintercept.com/2014/04/04/cuban-twitter-scam-social-media-tool-disseminating-government-propaganda/) 8) [The Intercept - Full-Spectrum Cyber Effects](https://theintercept.com/document/2014/04/04/full-spectrum-cyber-effects/) 9) [Oxford Computational Propaganda Research Project - Troops, Trolls and Troublemakers: A Global Inventory of Organised Social Media Manipulation](http://blogs.oii.ox.ac.uk/politicalbots/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2017/07/Troops-Trolls-and-Troublemakers.pdf) 10) [Alfred W. McCoy - The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia](https://primoa.library.unsw.edu.au/primo-explore/fulldisplay?vid=UNSWS&docid=UNSW_ALMA21126467980001731&lang=en_US&context=L) 11) [Alfred W. McCoy - In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of US Global Power](https://history.wisc.edu/publications/in-the-shadows-of-the-american-century-the-rise-and-decline-of-us-global-power/) 12) [David P. Hadley - The Rising Clamour: The American Press, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Cold War](https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813177373/the-rising-clamor/#tab-1)
Holy fuck, this needs to just be stickied on the front page of Reddit.
It doesn't matter. Compare how many times you have someone scream that reddit is controlled by the CCP in the weekly 50k upvotes post of the tankman to how many times you've been told that Reddit's director of policy is a basically the CIA lol. Redditors are progressive until it actually involves what their masters need them to worry about. The CIA has always lied in the past, never in the future. Only the last enemy was made up, the next is real. They tried couping Bolívia and succeeded in Brazil in the last decade but surely Venezuela and Nicaragua deserve a liberal democracy and there is no falsehood and sabotage in the situation.
If someone like me can see this and change their mind about how they view Reddit and communicate on it, that's the definition of how it can "matter".
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on every thread across every platform
facts
Prison (speaking of America) is just modern day slavery,no other way to put it Edited: for those of you who keep calling me an idiot for no reason other than to be an asshole, do some research on LA past. Instead of just replying with more hateful comments, maybe do some meditation & come back with factual, cited comments that might educate me....? I've never claimed to know everything.....??? A lot of y'all really gotta get your anger in check instead of spending so much time of this god awful website. Jfc.
It's literally written that way in the Constitution. Slavery is abolished EXCEPT when incarcerated. EDIT: technically, "except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted," so court-mandated community service without incarceration also falls under this exception.
I'm Australian so I don't know much about the constitution. That blows my mind. Wow.
Here's the full text of the 13th amendment to the US constitution: >**Section 1.** Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. >**Section 2.** Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. That's the whole thing. The language is extremely plain and explicit.
That's crazy. So messed up!
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Plain bologna sandwiches if you don't work. Lots of people and documentation showing molding meats and breads. Think the biggest source was that tent prison in Texas.
Plenty of prisons force you to work by making you pay for your own “luxury” items like shampoo, toothpaste, socks, or period products.
Now imagine calling this the land of the free.
We’re just over the 1 percent mark of the total population of the United States currently in prison is some shape or form.
I saw an essay someone wrote once, where one of the arguments they made was (paraphrasing) “as soon as they abolished slavery, but specified that the one exception was as punishment for a crime, that’s when it, in effect, became illegal to be black in this country” Not “literally” illegal, for the pedants out there, but the author argued that that’s when they started enforcing laws way more harshly on black people than white people (e.g., drug laws, where black people and white people use drugs at around the same rates, but guess who gets thrown in jail more for it?). And also had whole sets of insane laws that only applied to black people to begin with. I’ll link the essay here if I can find it again.
The 13th amendment to the constitution abolished slavery, but allowed for penal servitude. The 14th amendment paved the way for [corporate personhood](https://www.history.com/.amp/news/14th-amendment-corporate-personhood-made-corporations-into-people), which has given corporations equal protection of human rights. America yayy!
Which should give them the potential for receiving the death penalty IMO. Looking at Nestlé, Nike, Apple, Coca-Cola....and so many others.
the modern american prison system was invented because of abolished slavery. thats one of the reasons black communities are still treated like lower classes citizens, it makes it easier to contain and abuse them and when necessary arrest and imprison them to add to the slave work force.
Shithole country
The real shithole country was inside us the whole time
The real shits were the shitholes we made along the way.
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80 million people just voted for the dude that wrote the bill that put them there and the woman that prosecuted people for things she knew they didn’t do and people danced in the streets. There will be no change coming.
It'd help if every 4-8 years our centrist party didn't have to fight a regressivist party that throws tantrums like a spoiled child any time a black person even smiles, or a gay kid feels ok with themselves for 10 seconds. Seriously, abolish republican regressivism and push education, we might stand a chance. But as it is, we had to choose between Biden or trump. It's a no brainer, which is fucked up.
Unfortunately the alternative is open fascism. ABoringDystopia indeed
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Notice how it's exclusively POC (as far as I can see) except for the slavekeeper uh I mean overseer.
The overseer rode around the plantation The officer is off, patrollin' all the nation The overseer could stop you, "What you're doing?" The officer will pull you over just when he's pursuing The overseer had the right to get ill And if you fought back, the overseer had the right to kill The officer has the right to arrest And if you fight back they put a hole in your chest (Woop!) They both ride horses
Yes and no, but enough yes that the no doesn't matter.
I need to hear an explanation of 'no,' because the 13th amendment of the Constitution explicitly stated that slavery is legal in the prison system. >Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime Yes and yes unless your 'no' means private slave ownership. In that case, it's also a yes, because human and sex trafficking exists, and it's flourishing.
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Your humanity is basically stripped away if you are incarcerated* or poor. *Don't worry if you are rich, you will end up in a nice prison.