Are Corporate Profits Expanding Prisons?
by Bill Bolton
AJC Article about Buying a Bid
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution,
September 04, 2006,
"Prisons may lock in 1 vendor"
,
by Carlos Campos,
is a very good article about possible
bid fixing for the purchase of
sundries for our Georgia prisons.
This is about 2%
of the total cost of our prison operations.
A company from St. Louis is providing consolidated
bid to replace a piecemeal bidding process from
Georgia companies.
Could Corporations Encourage Crimes?
Through an indirect conspiracy, corporations may unknowingly
and legally encourage crime so the prisons are larger.
An indirect conspiracy usually is associated with
suspicious money flows, in spite of being legal.
An example of an indirect conspiracy is
what was happening in
the case of U.S. 1954 Brown v. Board of Education.
Prior to this case, the whites were
legally not providing
appropriate funds for black education.
This case criminalized the doctrine of
"Separate but Equal".
Applying an indirect conspiracy to
the prison system, corporations legally pay
politicians for expanded business. All is legal,
but the end results is that prisons keep growing
as we have seen. Granted, there is no smoking gun.
The bidding smells of Republicans, But
Former Georgia Attorney General Michael Bowers,
a Republican, is in the law firm that represents
the corporate company that is trying to win
the bid for the suppliers of sundries.
No real proof of a Republican connection, yet.
However, invariably the Democrats are at the
trough also. All politicians need money to win.
Fearing One Corporation owning all Prisons
As with the consolidation of sundry suppliers,
I fear that eventually one corporation
will own all prisons in Georgia.
Such a corporation would expand its business by
obtaining more prisoners via the legislature.
This same thing can be done by
having the legislature extend prison sentences,
which is what has been happening
for the last 15 years.
Thanks
Bill
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