So many of our cannabis heroes have served jail terms for growing a plant so we’re interested in any story about corruption in the U.S. prison system. The latest rip-off of the American taxpayer is that their tax dollars are lining the pockets of the owners of private, brutal jails that have cropped up all over the place. Click HERE to read the NYT expose of private prisons. Below is a letter to the New York Times editor responding to the story. We reprinted it below.
The Trump administration has justified cuts to public health, education, and international aid programs in the name of “government efficiency. At the same time, it is passing billions of taxpayer dollars to private prison executives to expand an immigration incarceration system that is notorious for abuse, mismanagement and waste. The private prison executives who run 90% of immigration detention facilities personally pocket millions in taxpayer funds by cutting costs through understaffing, overcrowding and denying minimum services like decent food and medical care. These ICE facilities aren’t just abusive. They’re ineffective and wasteful. While community-based alternatives to detention like case management programs cost only $14 a day per participant and have returned a 100% court appearance rate, incarcerating one adult immigrant in a private prison cell costs more than $160 a day.
– Media Raman and Anthony Enriquez
Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights