“You want to know what this was really all about? The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

-- John Ehrlichman, White House Counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under Richard Nixon

and heavy-handed anti-drug legislation remains a useful pretext to the government to this day for largely the same reason, as well as driving modern slavery (gotta keep those numbers up in for-profit prisons).

[–] imsufferableninja@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I agree with everything, except "for-profit prisons" is incomplete. Only something like 10% of prisoners are held in for-profit prisons. The modern prisoner slavery problem is endemic to the entire system, not just the private prison industry.

[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

For-profit prisons are abhorrent. 10% is too much.

But yeah, even the public prisons are slave labor camps. That's gotta stop.

[–] RumorsOfLove@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yes, and 'public prisons' still line pockets

[–] archonet@lemy.lol 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

ding ding ding, this answer. Who the fuck thinks that because only 10% of prisoners are in explicitly for-profit prisons, that only those 10% of prisons turn a profit from people being incarcerated for bullshit reasons? They're all for profit. Who profits differs a bit from here to there, but (iirc) it's usually whoever runs the commissary. You've got a quite very literally captive market, and it keeps the poors poor to charge whatever insane prices they like for basic necessities while paying them peanuts for labor they provide while inside (or their family fronts the cost, which is also arguably one of their desired knock-on effects). I just choose to say "for-profit" because, in some countries, prisons are focused on minimizing recidivism and promoting rehabilitation, not propping up a business model.