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Since I was a2a, how a case is built is dependent upon the type of crime (fraud, drug trafficking, money laundering, violence, etc.). Discovery of fraud generally involves a report of suspicious activity, a victim’s report, or review of records. Fraud investigations are primarily conducted through collection of pertinent financial records, identifying those involved and their documented activities. Fraud commonly involves a convoluted manipulation of circumstances that requires extensive knowledge of law and applicable regulations.Drug trafficking and associated money laundering generally involve informant information, with the informant commonly being someone arrested for an observed drug violation who turns on their confederates in order to limit their own punishment. That process could lead to an undercover operation and/or involve extensive surveillance of suspects, identification of drug and money stash locations, trash collection at identified locations, and collection of sufficient information to establish probable cause for a search warrant (http://www.quora.com/What-constitutes-probable-cause-for-a-police-officer-to-be-able-to-search-a-car-without-a-warrant/answer/Dan-Robb-2). The search warrant could lead to recovery of evidence, identification of suspects, and seizure of illegal substances or large quantities of currency for which there is no viable explanation.Investigations of crimes against persons are commonly initiated based on a report of what is claimed to be criminal behavior by a witness. The next common step involves interviews indicating where evidence may reside or where other witnesses may be located. Such information is evaluated and corroborated if possible; in that not even all eyewitness testimony is reliable (Robb, 2011). Crime scenes are identified and search is initiated, based either on immediate probable cause or through search warrants. Evidence is collected if possible, then processed for possible identification of suspects (e.g., DNA and/or fingerprints identifiable from data bases of prior offenders, or for comparison with future suspects), and indicators of events are theorized (e.g., accidental versus criminal actions).If no suspects are identifiable, or even if there are possible suspects, how the crime was committed may provide clues linking that crime to a past suspect or past crimes, even without physical evidence with regard to a suspect; or, if a serious crime, investigation may involve more extensive evaluation in a criminal profiling process:Modus Operandi and SignatureD. RobbCMRJ531In 1838, Sir Frederick Roe, a magistrate in London, argued for the employment of specialized police officers to detect crimes (as cited in Dilnot, 1927). The successes of the privately employed Bow Street Runners were cited as an example of the historical presence of recognizing modus operandi, and what could be interpreted as recognition of the value of criminal profiling.Sir Peter Laurie, a City magnate, was positive that the Metropolitan Police could not supersede the runners. ... "These men have been thief catchers all their lives, and know almost every thief in London, and of what he is capable. ... If you take them to a house, and show them that a robbery has been committed, they will tell you directly, by inspection, whether it has been done by an old or by an inexperienced thief." (as cited in Dilnot, 1927, p. 53)Holmes and Holmes (2002), in my opinion, do not adequately address the concepts of Modus Operandi (MO) and Signature. Therefore, further information is provided here. MO is not a new concept. Dilnot stated that "'Modus operandi' is obviously as old as detective work itself" (1927, p. 212). Dilnot did not comment of the exact origins of the position of detective, but he did say that detectives were employed by the Metropolitan Police, under the British Home Secretary, prior to 1845. The daguerreotype photographic process was patented in Europe in 1840, and,had come to America soon afterwards. ... None was more enthusiastic for this medium than Alan Pinkerton. Within a few years he had built up an impressive Rogues Gallery of mugshots and circulated copies of photographs to lawmen all over the country, together with detailed descriptions of physical features, dress, habits, mental characteristics, criminal specialties and mode of operation. (Mackay, 2007, p. 93)Pinkerton (1819-1884), a Scotch immigrant barrel maker and former Deputy Sheriff, headed the de facto national investigative agency (albeit private) in the U.S. during the pre- and post-Civil War era. The emergence of this private agency was apparently due the emergence of interstate commerce (i.e., railroads); the lack legal jurisdiction outside of the city, count, or state; an aversion to central governmental control; parochial thinking; and governmental financial considerations. In 1861, Pinkerton sent a letter to President Lincoln:I have in my Force from Sixteen to Eighteen persons on whose Courage, Skill and Devotion to their country I can rely. If they with myself at the head can be of service in the way of obtaining information of the movements of Traitors, or Safely conveying your letters or dispatches, on that class of Secret Service which is the most dangerous, I am at your command. (as cited in Mackay, 2007, p. 107)Fosdick (1915/1969), a former New York City Commissioner of Accounts, conducted one of the first cross-cultural studies of policing during 1913 and 1914. He was complimentary of the German system of criminal investigation, particularly with regard to the scholarly efforts of Dr. Hans Gross, an academic and criminal justice practitioner. Many European police agencies employed relatively sophisticated criminal classification and referencing systems, to the extent that in some countries, all foreigners were required to record their travels with the local police or face legal sanction. The use of dactyloscopy (fingerprinting) began for Scotland Yard in 1901, after use by English officials in India. And, classification of offenders according to method of operation (MO) by Scotland Yard was begun officially in 1896. However, at the request of London authorities in 1888, Dr. Thomas Bond was apparently cognizant of the concept based on his assessment of the crimes attributed to Jack the Ripper, based on his statement thatall five murders were no doubt committed by the same hand. … All the circumstances surrounding the murders lead me to form the opinion that the women must have been lying down when murdered. …In each case the mutilation was implicated by a person who had no scientific nor anatomical knowledge. …A man subject to periodical attacks of Homicidal and Erotic mania. The murderer in external appearance is quite likely to be a quiet inoffensive looking man, probably middle-aged and neatly and respectfully dressed. He would be solitary and eccentric in his habits, also he is most likely to be a man without regular occupation, but with a small income or pension. (as cited in Kocsis, 2006, p. 4)MO was at that time primarily used for burglary and theft crimes. Fosdick related:What is probably the most ambitious plan of crime classification by methods has been initiated in ... England. ... The so-called "M.O." or Modus Operandi system devised by Major L. W. Atcherley, Chief Constable of the West Riding of Yorkshire Constabulary.His system is more than an index for a single department. It is a cooperative arrangement by which habitual or traveling criminals can be traced from community to community by a comparison of their methods of work. (1915/1969, p. 344)Atcherley's system included 10 categories, and the tenth is somewhat consistent with the concept of signature:1—Classword; kind of property attacked, whether dwelling house, lodging house, hotel, etc.2—Entry; the actual point of entry, front window, back window, etc.3—Means; whether with implements or tools, such as a ladder, jimmy, etc.4—Object; kind of property taken.5—Time; not only time of day or night, but whether church time, market day, during meal hours, etc.6—Style; whether criminal to obtain entrance describes himself as mechanic, canvasser, agent, etc.7—Tale; any disclosure as to his alleged business or errand which the criminal may make.8—Pals; whether crime was committed with confederates, etc.9—Transport; whether bicycle or other vehicle was used in connection with crime.10—Trademark; whether criminal committed any unusual act in connection with crime, such as poisoning a dog, changing his clothes, leaving a note for the owner, etc. (Fosdick, 1915/1969, p. 346)MO and Signature are similar and may be easily confused, one for the other. MO involves those behaviors necessary for the successful commission of a crime; incorporating three elements: 1) success of the crime; 2) protection of identity; and, 3) successful escape (Gee & Belofastov, 2007).Signature is an aspect of a crime that fulfills an emotional need, which is not necessarily conscious. Signature could involve intentional crime scene configuration or taking of souvenirs, and generally remains consistent, due to the emotional element; or, may be as elemental as words used or the order in which acts are committed (Holmes & Holmes, 2002). Although, some variations of Signature can be expected, based on the recognition that each independent crime is subject to numerous influences (e.g., unexpected interruption, time constraints, physical limitations) (Douglas, Burgess, Burgess, & Ressler, 1992; Douglas & Olshaker, 1995; Turvey, 2001).Douglas et al. indicated that “signature does not always show up in every crime because of contingencies that might arise, such as interruptions or an unexpected victim response” (1992, p. 261). Turvey (2001) referred to this concept as the “X-factor,” unexpected events at the crime scene that may eliminate MO and Signature.MO is more affected by evolution and refinement, in response to environmental stimuli. For example, if one gets too close to being caught, one will probably improve their methods in the future. Or, as in the “DC Sniper” case, the press commented upon the fact that the shooter had targeted only adults, which was of course followed by the shooting of a young boy. And then, press statements highlighted the lack of demands by the DC Sniper, followed by demands from these spree killers for a large sum of money.Douglas and Olshaker (Douglas being a retired Federal Bureau of Investigation profiler) provided the following discussion of MO vs. Signature, and staging versus posing:The differences between MO and signature can be subtle. … (A) robber … made …captives undress, posed them in sexual positions, and took photographs…. That’s his signature. It was not necessary or helpful to the commission of a bank robbery.” Another robber forced disrobing “so the witnesses would be so preoccupied … that they … couldn’t make a positive ID. … This was MO. (1995, pp. 253-255)In a serial murder case, the defendant’s lawyer “was trying to show that it was unlikely these crimes were all committed by the same individual because so many details of the modus operandi varied. I made it clear that regardless of the MO, the common denominator in each of the murders was physical, sexual, and emotional torture. … So, though the methods of torture varied—the MO, if you will—the signature was the pleasure he received out of inflicting the pain” (Douglas & Olshaker, 1995, p. 255).Staging is an element of MO and involves placement or manipulation of a crime scene to mislead investigators, “such as when a rapist tries to make his intrusion look like a routine burglary” (Douglas & Olshaker, p. 256). Posing, (also) an element of signature, is infrequent and involves “treating the victim like a prop to leave a specific message. … These are crimes of anger, crimes of power(,) … it is the thrill of … beating the system” (p. 256).The Signature is sometimes referred to as a “calling card” or trademark of the offender, such as by Douglas et al. (1992). However, stating that the Signature is a calling card is inappropriate in my opinion. Such a label leads to the inference that it is an intentional act on the part of the perpetrator to mark the crime as his own; this may not be the case, since the perpetrator may not be conscious of the significance of the act and oblivious to how the evidence of his behavior will appear. Turvey (2001) also disagreed with such a label because crimes and the resulting crime scenes are inherently chaotic with numerous variables; therefore, a precise match of Signature and MO is unlikely. In addition, Turvey noted that interpretation of evidence may be faulty due to misinterpretation or destruction of evidence (intentional or accidental), leading to faulty conclusions.Signature and MO may be difficult to differentiate, and may even be indistinguishable in a crime scene. However, the concepts must be separated and the characteristics of each must be articulated.CR531 Criminal ProfilingD. L. RobbProfessor Comments Week 1Very few people would argue against the idea that the ways in which we present and maintain ourselves, our homes, and our workspaces reflect some very important aspects of our personalities. Certainly, from our studies in the humanities, archeology and anthropology, we know that even in the absence of a written history, the depictions of art, music, clothing, household artifacts, and architecture developed and left behind by a long-dead society can still clearly tell us a great deal about the beliefs, attitudes and lifestyles of its inhabitants. Similarly, it is the contention of practitioners of Criminal Profiling, that the actual commission of crimes may also reflect key personality and lifestyle characteristics of those who committed the crimes.The commission of a crime requires that the offender make a series of choices, decisions, responses, and reactions. The resulting dynamics of the crime, as revealed through crime scene investigation, will then necessarily reflect the intelligence, competence, composure, experience, needs, wants, fantasies, motivation, and many other key characteristics of the offender’s personality. This has probably been obvious to those charged with finding and apprehending offenders from the outset of such positions. …Profiling is rooted in the belief that an offender’s thinking directs the offender’s behavior. If the crime scene reveals to us the offender’s behavior, we should be able to examine the scene to make some assumptions about the offender’s thinking. “Elementary,” as Sherlock might say, probably not. Profiling is a complex function that requires investigative experience and insights gained from years of exposure to various crimes, individuals, and personality types.Criminal profiling is a criminological/sociological, psychological, biosociological, and forensic analysis process that attempts to make investigative sense of apparent crime scene dynamics, in order to gain an understanding of behavior, motivation characteristics of offenders, and personality. Profilers analyze the totality of the known crime circumstances, make inferences of offender behavior from that analysis, and create a profile of the offender based on inferences of the offender's behavior (what would appear to be inferences based on inferences).Profiling is, in fact, a form of retroclassification, or classification that works backward. Profilers recognize crime scene dynamics that are associated to criminal personality types who commit similar offences. Typically we classify a known entity into a discrete category, based on presenting characteristics that translate into criteria for assignment to that category. (Douglas, Burgess, Burgess, & Ressler, 2006, p. 97)In this course, you will be prompted to examine the research on criminal profiling. We will try to make sense of these acts of violence, which so often confront us in our contemporary life, and cull out of the acts, some comprehensible threads that will permit us to find similarities amongst offenders’ personalities and to formulate a rationale for the differences between them, as well. However, as we continue our inquiries into the field, we will discover that, as in almost all studies of human behavior, the discipline is filled with contradictory theories, opposing beliefs about the best way to study and construct criminal profiles, and many social, legal, and ethical issues that must be considered.References:Dilnot, G. (1927). The story of Scotland Yard. New York: Houghton Mifflin.Douglas, J. E., Burgess, A. W., Burgess, A. G., & Ressler, R. K. (Eds.). (2006). Crime classification manual: A standard system for investigating and classifying violent crimes (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Josey-Bass.ReferencesDilnot, G. (1927). The story of Scotland Yard. New York: Houghton Mifflin.Douglas, J. E., Burgess, A. W., Burgess, A. G., & Ressler, R. K. (1992). Crime classification manual: A standard system for investigating and classifying violent crimes. San Francisco: Josey-Bass.Douglas, J., & Olshaker, M. (1995). Mind hunter: Inside the FBI’s elite crime unit. New York: Pocket Books.Fosdick, R. B. (1969). European police systems. Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith. (Original work published 1915)Gee, D., & Belofastov, A. (2007). Profiling sexual fantasy: Fantasy in sexual offending and the implications for criminal profiling. In R. N. Kocsis (ed.). Criminal profiling: International theory, research, and practice. Totowa, NJ: Humana Press.Holmes, R. M., & Holmes, S. T. (2002). Profiling violent crimes: An investigative tool (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Kocsis, R. N. (2006). Criminal profiling: Principles and practice. Totowa, NJ: Humana Press.Mackay, J. (2007). Allan Pinkerton: The first private eye. Edison, NJ: Castle Books.Turvey, B. E. (2001). Criminal profiling: An introduction to behavioral evidence analysis (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Elsevier Academic Press.Once sufficient evidence is collected and corroborated to the extent thought necessary by investigators, the case is presented to prosecutors who assess the evidence with regard to the necessity for proving the allegation beyond a reasonable doubt in court. Additional investigation may be requested, prosecution may be declined, or accepted for prosecution.Reference:Robb, D. L. (2011, November). Eyewitness identification in photographic lineups: A case study. Presented at the Texas Association for Investigative Hypnosis Training Conference, November 2011. Retrieved from: https://www.academia.edu/26629934/Eyewitness_Identification_in_Photographic_Lineups_A_Case_Study

Systemic institutionalized racism and class warfare creates this uniquely regrettable fundamental human rights abuse in the USA. The benefits in the land of the free and brave only apply to the middle class and upper class in the USA.I would argue that the USA prison industry is both big business and 21st century slavery that more or less exclusively targets minorities. The criminal justice system is the USA is regrettably corrupt discriminating against the citizens that cannot legally protect themselves, the poor and minorities.Read the article below as it will likely change your perception of crime in the USA.The Prison Industry in the United States: Big Business or a New Form of Slavery?http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-prison-industry-in-the-united-states-big-business-or-a-new-form-of-slavery/8289Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million – mostly Black and Hispanic – are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country. According to California Prison Focus, “no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens.”The figures show that the United States has locked up more people than any other country: a half million more than China, which has a population five times greater than the U.S. Statistics reveal that the United States holds 25% of the world’s prison population, but only 5% of the world’s people. From less than 300,000 inmates in 1972, the jail population grew to 2 million by the year 2000. In 1990 it was one million. Ten years ago there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are 100, with 62,000 inmates. It is expected that by the coming decade, the number will hit 360,000, according to reports.What has happened over the last 10 years? Why are there so many prisoners?“The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. Prisons depend on this income. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners’ work lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce. The system feeds itself,” says a study by the Progressive Labor Party, which accuses the prison industry of being “an imitation of Nazi Germany with respect to forced slave labor and concentration camps.”The prison industry complex is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States and its investors are on Wall Street. “This multimillion-dollar industry has its own trade exhibitions, conventions, websites, and mail-order/Internet catalogs. It also has direct advertising campaigns, architecture companies, construction companies, investment houses on Wall Street, plumbing supply companies, food supply companies, armed security, and padded cells in a large variety of colors.”CRIME GOES DOWN, JAIL POPULATION GOES UPAccording to reports by human rights organizations, these are the factors that increase the profit potential for those who invest in the prison industry complex:. Jailing persons convicted of non-violent crimes, and long prison sentences for possession of microscopic quantities of illegal drugs. Federal law stipulates five years’ imprisonment without possibility of parole for possession of 5 grams of crack or 3.5 ounces of heroin, and 10 years for possession of less than 2 ounces of rock-cocaine or crack. A sentence of 5 years for cocaine powder requires possession of 500 grams – 100 times more than the quantity of rock cocaine for the same sentence. Most of those who use cocaine powder are white, middle-class or rich people, while mostly Blacks and Latinos use rock cocaine. In Texas, a person may be sentenced for up to two years’ imprisonment for possessing 4 ounces of marijuana. Here in New York, the 1973 Nelson Rockefeller anti-drug law provides for a mandatory prison sentence of 15 years to life for possession of 4 ounces of any illegal drug.. The passage in 13 states of the “three strikes” laws (life in prison after being convicted of three felonies), made it necessary to build 20 new federal prisons. One of the most disturbing cases resulting from this measure was that of a prisoner who for stealing a car and two bicycles received three 25-year sentences.. Longer sentences.. The passage of laws that require minimum sentencing, without regard for circumstances.. A large expansion of work by prisoners creating profits that motivate the incarceration of more people for longer periods of time.. More punishment of prisoners, so as to lengthen their sentences.HISTORY OF PRISON LABOR IN THE UNITED STATESPrison labor has its roots in slavery. After the 1861-1865 Civil War, a system of “hiring out prisoners” was introduced in order to continue the slavery tradition. Freed slaves were charged with not carrying out their sharecropping commitments (cultivating someone else’s land in exchange for part of the harvest) or petty thievery – which were almost never proven – and were then “hired out” for cotton picking, working in mines and building railroads. From 1870 until 1910 in the state of Georgia, 88% of hired-out convicts were Black. In Alabama, 93% of “hired-out” miners were Black. In Mississippi, a huge prison farm similar to the old slave plantations replaced the system of hiring out convicts. The notorious Parchman plantation existed until 1972.During the post-Civil War period, Jim Crow racial segregation laws were imposed on every state, with legal segregation in schools, housing, marriages and many other aspects of daily life. “Today, a new set of markedly racist laws is imposing slave labor and sweatshops on the criminal justice system, now known as the prison industry complex,” comments the Left Business Observer.Who is investing?At least 37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations that mount their operations inside state prisons. The list of such companies contains the cream of U.S. corporate society: IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nordstrom’s, Revlon, Macy’s, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, and many more. All of these businesses are excited about the economic boom generation by prison labor. Just between 1980 and 1994, profits went up from $392 million to $1.31 billion. Inmates in state penitentiaries generally receive the minimum wage for their work, but not all; in Colorado, they get about $2 per hour, well under the minimum.And in privately-run prisons, they receive as little as 17 cents per hour for a maximum of six hours a day, the equivalent of $20 per month. The highest-paying private prison is CCA in Tennessee, where prisoners receive 50 cents per hour for what they call “highly skilled positions.” At those rates, it is no surprise that inmates find the pay in federal prisons to be very generous. There, they can earn $1.25 an hour and work eight hours a day, and sometimes overtime. They can send home $200-$300 per month.Thanks to prison labor, the United States is once again an attractive location for investment in work that was designed for Third World labor markets. A company that operated a maquiladora (assembly plant in Mexico near the border) closed down its operations there and relocated to San Quentin State Prison in California. In Texas, a factory fired its 150 workers and contracted the services of prisoner-workers from the private Lockhart Texas prison, where circuit boards are assembled for companies like IBM and Compaq.[Former] Oregon State Representative Kevin Mannix recently urged Nike to cut its production in Indonesia and bring it to his state, telling the shoe manufacturer that “there won’t be any transportation costs; we’re offering you competitive prison labor (here).”PRIVATE PRISONSThe prison privatization boom began in the 1980s, under the governments of Ronald Reagan and Bush Sr., but reached its height in 1990 under William Clinton, when Wall Street stocks were selling like hotcakes. Clinton’s program for cutting the federal workforce resulted in the Justice Departments contracting of private prison corporations for the incarceration of undocumented workers and high-security inmates.Private prisons are the biggest business in the prison industry complex. About 18 corporations guard 10,000 prisoners in 27 states. The two largest are Correctional Corporation of America (CCA) and Wackenhut, which together control 75%. Private prisons receive a guaranteed amount of money for each prisoner, independent of what it costs to maintain each one. According to Russell Boraas, a private prison administrator in Virginia, “the secret to low operating costs is having a minimal number of guards for the maximum number of prisoners.” The CCA has an ultra-modern prison in Lawrenceville, Virginia, where five guards on dayshift and two at night watch over 750 prisoners. In these prisons, inmates may get their sentences reduced for “good behavior,” but for any infraction, they get 30 days added – which means more profits for CCA. According to a study of New Mexico prisons, it was found that CCA inmates lost “good behavior time” at a rate eight times higher than those in state prisons.IMPORTING AND EXPORTING INMATESProfits are so good that now there is a new business: importing inmates with long sentences, meaning the worst criminals. When a federal judge ruled that overcrowding in Texas prisons was cruel and unusual punishment, the CCA signed contracts with sheriffs in poor counties to build and run new jails and share the profits. According to a December 1998 Atlantic Monthly magazine article, this program was backed by investors from Merrill-Lynch, Shearson-Lehman, American Express and Allstate, and the operation was scattered all over rural Texas. That state’s governor, Ann Richards, followed the example of Mario Cuomo in New York and built so many state prisons that the market became flooded, cutting into private prison profits.After a law signed by Clinton in 1996 – ending court supervision and decisions – caused overcrowding and violent, unsafe conditions in federal prisons, private prison corporations in Texas began to contact other states whose prisons were overcrowded, offering “rent-a-cell” services in the CCA prisons located in small towns in Texas. The commission for a rent-a-cell salesman is $2.50 to $5.50 per day per bed. The county gets $1.50 for each prisoner.STATISTICSNinety-seven percent of 125,000 federal inmates have been convicted of non-violent crimes. It is believed that more than half of the 623,000 inmates in municipal or county jails are innocent of the crimes they are accused of. Of these, the majority are awaiting trial. Two-thirds of the one million state prisoners have committed non-violent offenses. Sixteen percent of the country’s 2 million prisoners suffer from mental illness.

I would argue that the USA prison industry is both big business and 21st century slavery that more or less exclusively targets minorities. The criminal justice system is the USA is regrettably corrupt discriminating against the citizens that cannot legally protect themselves, the poor and minorities.The Prison Industry in the United States: Big Business or a New Form of Slavery?http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-prison-industry-in-the-united-states-big-business-or-a-new-form-of-slavery/8289Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million – mostly Black and Hispanic – are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country. According to California Prison Focus, “no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens.”The figures show that the United States has locked up more people than any other country: a half million more than China, which has a population five times greater than the U.S. Statistics reveal that the United States holds 25% of the world’s prison population, but only 5% of the world’s people. From less than 300,000 inmates in 1972, the jail population grew to 2 million by the year 2000. In 1990 it was one million. Ten years ago there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are 100, with 62,000 inmates. It is expected that by the coming decade, the number will hit 360,000, according to reports.What has happened over the last 10 years? Why are there so many prisoners?“The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. Prisons depend on this income. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners’ work lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce. The system feeds itself,” says a study by the Progressive Labor Party, which accuses the prison industry of being “an imitation of Nazi Germany with respect to forced slave labor and concentration camps.”The prison industry complex is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States and its investors are on Wall Street. “This multimillion-dollar industry has its own trade exhibitions, conventions, websites, and mail-order/Internet catalogs. It also has direct advertising campaigns, architecture companies, construction companies, investment houses on Wall Street, plumbing supply companies, food supply companies, armed security, and padded cells in a large variety of colors.”CRIME GOES DOWN, JAIL POPULATION GOES UPAccording to reports by human rights organizations, these are the factors that increase the profit potential for those who invest in the prison industry complex:. Jailing persons convicted of non-violent crimes, and long prison sentences for possession of microscopic quantities of illegal drugs. Federal law stipulates five years’ imprisonment without possibility of parole for possession of 5 grams of crack or 3.5 ounces of heroin, and 10 years for possession of less than 2 ounces of rock-cocaine or crack. A sentence of 5 years for cocaine powder requires possession of 500 grams – 100 times more than the quantity of rock cocaine for the same sentence. Most of those who use cocaine powder are white, middle-class or rich people, while mostly Blacks and Latinos use rock cocaine. In Texas, a person may be sentenced for up to two years’ imprisonment for possessing 4 ounces of marijuana. Here in New York, the 1973 Nelson Rockefeller anti-drug law provides for a mandatory prison sentence of 15 years to life for possession of 4 ounces of any illegal drug.. The passage in 13 states of the “three strikes” laws (life in prison after being convicted of three felonies), made it necessary to build 20 new federal prisons. One of the most disturbing cases resulting from this measure was that of a prisoner who for stealing a car and two bicycles received three 25-year sentences.. Longer sentences.. The passage of laws that require minimum sentencing, without regard for circumstances.. A large expansion of work by prisoners creating profits that motivate the incarceration of more people for longer periods of time.. More punishment of prisoners, so as to lengthen their sentences.HISTORY OF PRISON LABOR IN THE UNITED STATESPrison labor has its roots in slavery. After the 1861-1865 Civil War, a system of “hiring out prisoners” was introduced in order to continue the slavery tradition. Freed slaves were charged with not carrying out their sharecropping commitments (cultivating someone else’s land in exchange for part of the harvest) or petty thievery – which were almost never proven – and were then “hired out” for cotton picking, working in mines and building railroads. From 1870 until 1910 in the state of Georgia, 88% of hired-out convicts were Black. In Alabama, 93% of “hired-out” miners were Black. In Mississippi, a huge prison farm similar to the old slave plantations replaced the system of hiring out convicts. The notorious Parchman plantation existed until 1972.During the post-Civil War period, Jim Crow racial segregation laws were imposed on every state, with legal segregation in schools, housing, marriages and many other aspects of daily life. “Today, a new set of markedly racist laws is imposing slave labor and sweatshops on the criminal justice system, now known as the prison industry complex,” comments the Left Business Observer.Who is investing?At least 37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations that mount their operations inside state prisons. The list of such companies contains the cream of U.S. corporate society: IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nordstrom’s, Revlon, Macy’s, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, and many more. All of these businesses are excited about the economic boom generation by prison labor. Just between 1980 and 1994, profits went up from $392 million to $1.31 billion. Inmates in state penitentiaries generally receive the minimum wage for their work, but not all; in Colorado, they get about $2 per hour, well under the minimum.And in privately-run prisons, they receive as little as 17 cents per hour for a maximum of six hours a day, the equivalent of $20 per month. The highest-paying private prison is CCA in Tennessee, where prisoners receive 50 cents per hour for what they call “highly skilled positions.” At those rates, it is no surprise that inmates find the pay in federal prisons to be very generous. There, they can earn $1.25 an hour and work eight hours a day, and sometimes overtime. They can send home $200-$300 per month.Thanks to prison labor, the United States is once again an attractive location for investment in work that was designed for Third World labor markets. A company that operated a maquiladora (assembly plant in Mexico near the border) closed down its operations there and relocated to San Quentin State Prison in California. In Texas, a factory fired its 150 workers and contracted the services of prisoner-workers from the private Lockhart Texas prison, where circuit boards are assembled for companies like IBM and Compaq.[Former] Oregon State Representative Kevin Mannix recently urged Nike to cut its production in Indonesia and bring it to his state, telling the shoe manufacturer that “there won’t be any transportation costs; we’re offering you competitive prison labor (here).”PRIVATE PRISONSThe prison privatization boom began in the 1980s, under the governments of Ronald Reagan and Bush Sr., but reached its height in 1990 under William Clinton, when Wall Street stocks were selling like hotcakes. Clinton’s program for cutting the federal workforce resulted in the Justice Departments contracting of private prison corporations for the incarceration of undocumented workers and high-security inmates.Private prisons are the biggest business in the prison industry complex. About 18 corporations guard 10,000 prisoners in 27 states. The two largest are Correctional Corporation of America (CCA) and Wackenhut, which together control 75%. Private prisons receive a guaranteed amount of money for each prisoner, independent of what it costs to maintain each one. According to Russell Boraas, a private prison administrator in Virginia, “the secret to low operating costs is having a minimal number of guards for the maximum number of prisoners.” The CCA has an ultra-modern prison in Lawrenceville, Virginia, where five guards on dayshift and two at night watch over 750 prisoners. In these prisons, inmates may get their sentences reduced for “good behavior,” but for any infraction, they get 30 days added – which means more profits for CCA. According to a study of New Mexico prisons, it was found that CCA inmates lost “good behavior time” at a rate eight times higher than those in state prisons.IMPORTING AND EXPORTING INMATESProfits are so good that now there is a new business: importing inmates with long sentences, meaning the worst criminals. When a federal judge ruled that overcrowding in Texas prisons was cruel and unusual punishment, the CCA signed contracts with sheriffs in poor counties to build and run new jails and share the profits. According to a December 1998 Atlantic Monthly magazine article, this program was backed by investors from Merrill-Lynch, Shearson-Lehman, American Express and Allstate, and the operation was scattered all over rural Texas. That state’s governor, Ann Richards, followed the example of Mario Cuomo in New York and built so many state prisons that the market became flooded, cutting into private prison profits.After a law signed by Clinton in 1996 – ending court supervision and decisions – caused overcrowding and violent, unsafe conditions in federal prisons, private prison corporations in Texas began to contact other states whose prisons were overcrowded, offering “rent-a-cell” services in the CCA prisons located in small towns in Texas. The commission for a rent-a-cell salesman is $2.50 to $5.50 per day per bed. The county gets $1.50 for each prisoner.STATISTICSNinety-seven percent of 125,000 federal inmates have been convicted of non-violent crimes. It is believed that more than half of the 623,000 inmates in municipal or county jails are innocent of the crimes they are accused of. Of these, the majority are awaiting trial. Two-thirds of the one million state prisoners have committed non-violent offenses. Sixteen percent of the country’s 2 million prisoners suffer from mental illness.