The ACLU has released Banking on Bondage: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration, an in-depth examination of the private prison industry.The report finds that mass incarceration provides a gigantic windfall for one special interest group – the private prison industry – even as current incarceration levels harm the country as a whole.

While the nation’s unprecedented rate of imprisonment deprives individuals of freedom, wrests loved ones from their families, and drains the resources of governments, communities, and taxpayers, the private prison industry is expanding at an exponential rate, holding ever more people in its prisons and jails, and generating massive profits. Private prisons for adults were virtually non-existent until the early 1980s, but the number of prisoners in private prisons increased by approximately 1,600 percent between 1990 and 2009. In 2010, the two largest private prison companies alone received nearly $3 billion in revenue.

As detailed in the report, this year advocates of for-profit prisons trotted out privatization schemes as a supposed answer to budgetary woes in numerous states, including Arizona, Florida, Ohio, and Louisiana. But the evidence that private prisons provide savings compared to publicly operated facilities is highly questionable, and certain studies point to worse conditions in for-profit facilities.

Now is the time for serious criminal justice reform, not privatization schemes. The private prison industry feeds off the mass incarceration problem and cannot be part of the solution. The only real way to cut prison spending is to cut the number of people we keep in prison.

To learn more, listen to this new podcast with private prisons expert Alex Friedmann, then go here to read more about the ACLU’s work to end reliance on private prisons.

Want to help? Go here to take action!

 

Via David Shapiro, ACLU National Prison Project

The Department of Justice (DOJ) today withdrew a proposed regulation that would allow government agencies to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests with false statements that the documents sought do not exist, when, in fact, they do. Providing such false denials has apparently been a practice at DOJ for decades, which was most recently revealed in a FOIA lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU/SC) on behalf of a number of Southern California Muslim individuals and organizations.

The groups originally filed a FOIA to request information on whether the FBI had been spying on them in 2006. The DOJ responded by repeatedly stating that no documents existed that were responsive to their request. ACLU/SC filed suit on their behalf. United States District Judge Cormac Carney then reviewed the documents, at which time he discovered that the government had repeatedly lied in its responses. The government claimed that national security concerns justified denying the documents’ existence, but Judge Carney disagreed vehemently in a ruling last April, adding that no national security interest ever justifies making false statements to a court.

The ACLU Washington Legislative Office and members of Congress across the ideological spectrum including Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Mark Udall (D-CO), and Representative Lamar Smith (R-IL) in particular, along with OpenTheGovernment.org, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and other open government groups, helped pressure DOJ to withdraw this regulation.

Although the DOJ has now withdrawn the proposed regulation, it has declined to state that it will stop providing deceptive responses in such cases. The open government community will work with Congress and the administration to create effective guidelines and oversight that ensures government agencies will provide sufficient information to understand how FOIA requests are handled, so that citizens can effectively use the courts to protect their right to government information while still protecting the government’s need for secrecy in a very narrow circumstances.

“We’re pleased that the Department of Justice intends to refrain from writing this type of deceptive practice into its regulations,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, deputy legal director at ACLU/SC. “But we’re concerned at what we’re not hearing: that DOJ won’t at some point again try to conceal the truth from citizens and from the courts entrusted with protecting their civil rights. As the Obama Administration should know, our government can only function well when it is transparent.”

The case is Islamic Shura Council v. FBI, 8:07-cv-01088 (C.D. Cal. 2008).

GSAs (Gay Straight Alliances) help create a positive school environment, which is the objective of the ACLU/SC's student rights project. Excerpted from the ACLU Blog of Rights:
GSAs are school clubs that aim to create safe and supportive environments for students to learn about homophobia, transphobia, and other types of oppression and prejudice. They are places to have important discussions, to make friends, and to get support from peers. They can help educate the school community — even people who aren’t in the club — about issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity. And they can help fight the discrimination, harassment, and violence that plague so many students.
Research has shown that students at schools with GSAs experience less harassment and are more likely to feel safe — which makes every day a whole lot easier. That’s why we at the ACLU are such big fans. And that’s why we’ve put together this step-by-step video on how to start a GSA! It guides you through five steps for starting a GSA, from explaining why you want a club to things to do when you start meeting.

The Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network (GLSEN), has registered over 4,000 GSAs across the country and in every state in the U.S., so chances are everything will go smoothly! But if you’re worried that your school administration won’t be supportive, it’s particularly important to make sure you follow the steps laid out here. These tips will make it easier for the ACLU to support you if you need our help.  And we have lots of additional resources on our website that may be helpful too.  We’re here to support you through every step of starting a GSA - before you start, when you’re putting up posters, if you run into opposition, and during your meetings.
No one should be bullied. Starting a GSA helps ensure that everyone feels safe at school. It might sound like a big project, but it’s a hugely important one — and if you have any questions or just want to get some general advice about starting a GSA at your school, please contact us. You don’t have to do it alone!