The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Or by counting them.
Ponder the phrase a moment.
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For-profit prison industry.
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Just writing it makes me feel soiled. I feel disgusted that the words can be used together, actually describing something that is. I see it as one of the most horrible things I can think of. When I consider it I feel pretty much the same way I feel when I'm pondering slavery. Sickened by and for my species.
Laws as dragnets, law-breakers as commodities. Turn and burn, baby, turn and burn. Rehabilitation? Like the man said, it becomes just a made-up word, with no meaning whatsoever. What would be the point? Where's the profit incentive in escape from the system? The point is to make money. Have to make those investors happy yaknow.
The whole thing is, well, utterly despicable on its face.
"But..but.. criminals... thieves... murderers... teh druggzzzz!!"
Ah now. That is the chewy center. The drugs. Talk about a dragnet. Time to bust the speakeasies and smash the barrels again, with an ever-loving WAR this time. A war on each other, and to some people every warm body filing off the bus and into the booking room is just another gold piece for their hoard. A windfall Satan himself would be proud of.
And that's not even mentioning the devilishly gratuitous market-corner that was cannabis prohibition. Turn and burn. "Gateway" drug indeed. I think the reefer madness was the best thing to ever happen to the for-profit prison industry. Or it's possible that I have that backwards. Regardless it has paid off big.
The formula was simple enough, to use heroin as an example:
Criminalize both cannabis and heroin. Equate the two. Convince people you're serious.
Repeat ad nauseam.
Watch the units fly.
Like shooting fish in a barrel. Or busting hippies.
Utterly despicable