Lord Black of Crossharbour doesn't think much of the American penal system, his host for the next five plus years. In a letter to the Sunday Times of London, Black blasts back (c'mon, say that 10-times real fast) claiming the US penal system is a corporate scam:
"The U.S. is now a carceral state that imprisons eight to 12 times more people (2.5 million) per capita than the UK, Canada, Australia, France, Germany or Japan," Black, serving a 6 1/2-year sentence for defrauding millions from his former media empire, wrote in a letter to the Sunday Times of London.
"U.S. justice has become a command economy based on the avarice of private prison companies, a gigantic prison service industry and politically influential correctional officers' unions that agitate for an unlimited increase in the number of prosecutions and the length of sentences."
"The entire 'war on drugs,' by contrast, is a classic illustration of supply-side economics: a trillion taxpayers' dollars squandered and (one million) small fry imprisoned at a cost of $50 billion a year; as supply of and demand for illegal drugs have increased, prices have fallen and product quality has improved."
Hey, wait a minute. Is that Lord Black hisself vouching for the improved quality of street drugs in America? What does he know that we don't? Has he been sampling the wares from inside the Greybar Hotel?
"The U.S. is now a carceral state that imprisons eight to 12 times more people (2.5 million) per capita than the UK, Canada, Australia, France, Germany or Japan," Black, serving a 6 1/2-year sentence for defrauding millions from his former media empire, wrote in a letter to the Sunday Times of London.
"U.S. justice has become a command economy based on the avarice of private prison companies, a gigantic prison service industry and politically influential correctional officers' unions that agitate for an unlimited increase in the number of prosecutions and the length of sentences."
"The entire 'war on drugs,' by contrast, is a classic illustration of supply-side economics: a trillion taxpayers' dollars squandered and (one million) small fry imprisoned at a cost of $50 billion a year; as supply of and demand for illegal drugs have increased, prices have fallen and product quality has improved."
Hey, wait a minute. Is that Lord Black hisself vouching for the improved quality of street drugs in America? What does he know that we don't? Has he been sampling the wares from inside the Greybar Hotel?
9 comments:
It's interesting isn't it--a favourable review of a book by Margaret Atwood, a trenchant critique pf the US penal system--the man is starting to sound positively liberal. Is this real or feigned?
I really don't understand what's going on. Black writes a scathing public indictment of the US penal system having just appealed to Bush for a presidential pardon. Then Tom Flanagan publicly urges Harper to act like a real neo-con, slashing and burning his way through the federal government at the moment Canada gets swept up in a recession. I don't get it.
Methinks Lord Black has been reading WesterGrit (see my blogpost about the US Penal Industry - I refuse to call it a "system").
Prisons are big bucks for conservatives.
Hey WesternGrit, is that the reason that Harper wants to imprison 14 years olds - to boost the prison industry?
Ya have to wonder why Harper would want to copy it.
I would say so...
The.. ahem... "law and order" agenda is all about money for private security and prison groups via fear-mongering. Conservative Ideologues like Cheney sat on boards of organizations like the Fraser Institute who preach the gospel of "privatization and deregulation" - including prisons and policing/security.
C'mon people, it's straightforward - "Black blasts back" - say it ten times - fast, very fast, and no cheating on the STS in blasts.
This is a first - a prison sentence that actually does some good for the inmate. Maybe we should consider jailing all right-wing extremists as a cure-all.
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