If you've made it this far then hopefully you've read part 1 of this piece, and hopefully you feel that part 1 was not the vision of the future you desired. Even if you don't exactly know what your vision for the future is, realizing another world is possible is a start and if you're reading this then there is a good chance you are willing to entertain other possibilities. But before you can entertain other possibilities we need to make a few things clear. Dissent from, and/or failing to aid, the will of the ruling class will make you some enemies. And those who are unprofitable (useless) to the ruling class and the state they control may make you a victim of another powerful social control, Prison.

There are approximately 2 million Americans in prison or jail (does not include those in pre-trial detention). Add in the number under some form of parole, probation, or other state supervision and this number balloons to over 6.5 million. Since 1980 the prison population has grown by approximately 300%. From 1973 to 1993, state corrections spending increased 1200%, while state expenditures for higher education increased only 419%. Throughout the 1980s, state spending for corrections increased 95%, while spending on higher education decreased 6%. The U.S. prison population is approximately 25% more than that of China, despite China's poor human rights record and the fact it has 3-4 times the population of the United States. Despite the violent crimes portrayed excessively on the news, two thirds of the U.S. prison population are there for non-violent offenses. All this in a nation that touts patriotism and love of its citizens. This is just a brief synopsis of the dilemma we are currently faced with, because I could easily go on for several pages quoting disturbing facts and figures regarding the United States' prison population. The question must then be asked, "why lock up your own citizens" and "why the sudden large increase in the prison population?"

Many people point to the effort to privatize prisons and the profit motive as the explanation for the growth of the Prison Industrial Complex. They point to the fact that companies such as Microsoft, Starbucks, Victoria's Secret and TWA have used prison labor (usually not directly, they use subcontractors who may in turn use prison labor. The same is usually the case with child labor and sweatshops). Corrections Corporations of America (CCA) and Wackenhut Corrections Corporation (WCC is subsidiary of Wackenhut International) are the two largest private jailers. According to their website CCA currently owns and operates 63 facilities in 21 states under contract with federal, state and local governments as well as several others in Puerto Rico, Australia and the United Kingdom. Today, CCA is the sixth largest corrections system in the country, coming just after Texas, California, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, New York, and Florida. As of the close of 2000, Wackenhut Corrections Corporation had been awards/contracts to develop/manage 55 correctional/detention facilities in the United States, England, Scotland, Wales, Puerto Rico, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada, with a total of over 40,000 beds. Both companies trade on the New York Stock Exchange, CCA under the ticker CXW and Wackenhut Corrections Corporation under the ticker WHC.

In recent years some private correctional companies have run advertisements in prison trade magazines illustrating the cost-benefits of prison labor, at times, even versus foreign labor markets. In addition to producing goods and services extremely cheaply with virtual slave labor, which is the case for much of the "3rd World" labor market, increasing the use of prison labor for commercial production helps drive down wages and working conditions outside of prison just as corporate threats of moving jobs to cheaper labor markets overseas does. Prison labor for private profit is quite likely an area marked for future growth. All that being said, private prisons with all of their cost cutting caused abuses, make up less than 10% of the prison market. By itself privatization certainly doesn't explain the upsurge in incarceration.

The truth behind today's Prison Industrial Complex and its immense size and growth is that prison is a way of managing and controlling the "dangerous classes". And by "dangerous classes" I don't necessarily mean violent people. As it was already stated, only 1 out of 3 (approximately) people in prison are there for violent offenses, such as murder, rape, assault, etc. By "dangerous classes" I mean poor people and/or people of color (especially Blacks and Latinos).

This is done by primarily through passing draconian laws aimed at the "undesirable classes", under the guise of "getting tough on crime" and "The War on Drugs". Virtually every politician whether Republican (Republocrat), Democrat (Demican), or Independent (Dependent) makes a position that is allegedly tough on crime part of their election platform - so much so that we regularly attend "elections" with 2 or 3 pro-death penalty candidates. Most of you may know these laws as California's "Three Strikes Laws" where you can (and do) get 25 years to life for 3rd offenses such as petty theft, (shoplifting), possession of .05 of a gram of heroin, stealing a 10 speed bicycle, and similar offenses. Some of you may have noticed this sentiment in the recent law to ban people with marijuana possession arrest from receiving financial aid. As a Native New Yorker, I know these laws as the Rockefeller Drug Laws.

Enacted in 1973 under then - New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, the Rockefeller Drug Laws require harsh prison terms for the possession or sale of relatively small amounts of drugs. For example, the harshest provision of this statute mandates a judge to impose a prison term of no less than 15 years to life for anyone convicted of selling 2 ounces or possessing 4 ounces of a narcotic substance. The penalties apply without regard to the circumstances of the offense or the individual's character or background. Whether the person is a first-time or repeat offender, for instance, is irrelevant. The mandated nature of these sentences is extremely important because it removes any hope of leniency and reason from a judge's decision.

Many other States, especially those containing cities with large populations of brown people, such as Texas have similar laws on the books. Laws such as these, especially the Rockefeller Drug Laws, serve a double purpose beyond the obvious one. They also "racialize" crime - concentrating large numbers of African-Americans and Latinos in the prison population. For instance under Federal Law there is a 100:1 discrepancies between crack and powder cocaine in sentencing. That means that currently, an individual can possess 100 times more powder cocaine than crack cocaine and still receive the same amount of punishment in federal court. Quite predictably crack, partially because of it's lower cost, is sold and used far more in communities of color and poverty. It should then come as no surprise that as of 1998, According to the federal Household Survey, "most illicit drug users were white. There were an estimated 9.9 million whites (72 percent of all users), 2.0 million blacks (15 percent), and 1.4 million Hispanics (10 percent) who were current illicit drug users in 1998". And yet, blacks constituted 36.8% of those arrested for drug violations, and over 42% of those in federal prisons for drug violations. African-Americans comprise almost 58% of those in state prisons for drug felonies; Hispanics account for 20.7% (Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: Summary Report 1998). Although the usage discrepancy remains roughly the same in New York, sentencing differences are even worse; African-Americans and Latinos comprise about 94% of the drug offenders in New York State prisons.

"Racializing" crime is also an extremely important tactic because it plays on the prejudice and racism inherent in American society. It's very easy to get most "whites", the largest voting demographic in the U.S., to support biased legislation targeted at people of color and the poor since they only see black and brown faces being paraded through the media as criminals. The media's biased, misrepresentation of the nature of crime in America and who is committing it, maintains old myths about crime while creating new ones. If you look at prison construction patterns nationwide, you will quickly notice that they are generally constructed in mostly white, somewhat rural towns with depressed economies. There usually isn't much going on in terms of opportunity in these towns, outside of the prison itself and many times the community welcomes it. Isn't it ironic that the people who work in the prison; who are given the responsibility of policing and administration in the prison would probably be in a prison, as a prisoner, if not for these jobs.

One thing is for sure the only way they may have trouble filling all those new cells is if people decide to take action or they simply run out of African-Americans and Latinos to lock up (at that point they may start locking up more poor whites). As painful as it may be to admit it, prison has become somewhat of a "right of passage" in the mentalities (subconsciously or overtly) of many people (especially those under 35) of color in America's inner cities, parents included. It's almost as if many African-Americans and Latinos are expected to come under the control of the penal system at least once before 30 years old. I say this not as speculation but as a product of this same inner city and someone who still lives and socializes there. This is also the product of knowing that as of December 31, 2000, the U.S. incarceration rate was 699 per 100,000 residents. However, for Black males ages 25-29: it was 13,118 per 100,000 (13%). To put this all in perspective you can make some international comparisons: South Africa under Apartheid was internationally condemned as a racist society. South Africa under apartheid (1993), Black adult men: 851 per 100,000 U.S. under Bill Clinton (2000), Black adult men: 7,119 per 100,000. I will let you decide what it means that "the leader of the free world" locks up its Black men at a rate 8.4 times higher than the most openly racist country in the world.

Besides what has already been stated there are a number of other factors at fault for this dynamic. By far one of the most powerful is commercial rap music (I don't believe in calling this true "hip-hop" culture). I'm certainly no C. Delores Tucker, but I am thoroughly disgusted by the ignorant, nihilistic, garbage that is heavily promoted as "hip-hop" which promotes drug selling and crime as a realistic way to escape poverty or "fight the system". Even a cursory glance at the recent history of rap music videos is overwhelmingly filled with scenes of black and brown men behind bars (often singing/rapping as is they are happy to be there), being chased by cops, or on their way to jail. The only thing that disgust me more is the defenses that these entertainers offer for their assorted acts of treason against brown people; "I'm not promoting it, I'm just telling it like it is" (A.K.A "I'm keepin' it real"), "keepin' it gangsta" (A.K.A "I'm keepin' it real"), "it's the parents responsibility", etc.

In what current "Real-ity" does a poor or middle class child stand a realistic chance of growing rich, getting a big house, an expensive car, and a Soul Train line of gyrating, promiscuous, bisexual hoes - from selling drugs? Let's deal with what's REAL! The days of the Big time drug dealer making a lot of money in the hood were short-lived and are NOW OVER! Do the math, assuming the mid 1980s was the height (or low point depending on viewpoint) of the hustling era and most of these "thugged out" rappers are in the their late twenties or early thirties - could they really have been controlling the streets between the ages of 12 and 16? Let's keep it really real, how much money can one make on the corner when selling "Crack" which is doing $2 and $3 dollar hits on some New York City street corners. I doubt that anywhere near as many children would be willing to mortgage their future, if they knew that all they would get out of the deal is a couple of pairs of new sneakers, a crippling felony on their criminal record, and serious jail time. Then as if poison through headphone and video wasn't enough, rappers are now making movies that usually amount to extended music videos whether it's a B-movie from Master-P, a film like Belly, or Roc-A-Fella's State Property (which makes Belly look like it deserved an Academy Award).

Can Roc-A-Fella credibly argue that they are not promoting this drug/prison culture when their next film to be released will be Paid In Full which chronicles the lives of 1980's Harlem drug Lords, "Alpo", Rich Porter, and AZ (not the rapper). Remember it was Dame Dash who said, “filmmaking allows Roc-A-Fella to attach visuals to many of the stories depicted in its music. A lot of times we like to bring a lot of the rhymes that we say to life, because you might say it a little too quick and people will miss it. We try to bring the visual to it” (I am NOT trying to single out Roc-A-Fella, because there is more than enough blame to go around. They simply are a prime and recent example). I could also talk about the popularity of crime glorifying magazines like F.E.D.S (Finally Every Dimension of the Streets), Don Diva (Don Diva bills itself as the magazine, "For The Ghetto Fabulous Lifestyle"), and F.E.L.O.N (From Every Level of Neighborhoods) but I will leave that to another Playahata.

When rappers are not shifting blame using the "keepin' it real" defense, they are blaming parents. Of course parents have the largest role in the development of their children, but is this any real excuse for the irresponsible messages put out by rappers and their sponsors companies, under the guise of entertainment? With the decrease of peoples real wages and job security, and consequently, the increase in the amount of time spent working and the number of two parent homes where both parents work; it becomes clear that most of America's children are in a large part raised by television. Add to that the prevalence of single parent homes in America, especially in communities of color; the same communities these rappers come from; and the same miserable, fatherless households these rappers talk about endlessly, and you have to wonder - are these cop-out excuses acceptable? Truth be told, most rappers could care less about the messages they send with their music, videos, movies, interviews, etc. They are simply trying to make a buck as any $20 dollar hoe would. And the consumers who drive the industry, the white, suburban kids and young adults who want to rebel against their parents, be in with pop culture, or genuinely like rap - will continue buying it because it fulfills their warped fantasies about what it must be like to grow up Black or Latino and "in the hood". Until what is "Real" and acceptable is redefined by those whose creations drive the industry we will likely be faced with this dilemma.

America's regression towards a prison/police state is not going unchallenged, as it shouldn't! Groups like Drop The Rock , No More Prisons, Critical Resistance, and Families to Amend California's Three-Strikes to name a few are doing a lot of organizing against the Prison Industrial Complex, draconian laws, and unjust sentencing. Change will come with numbers and pressure, and there is plenty you can do to make a difference so put your boots on!

Suggested Reading:

Crime Control As Industry: Towards Gulags, Western Style. by Nils Christie.

Search and Destroy: African-American Males in the Criminal Justice System by Jerome Miller

The Celling of America: An Inside Look at the U.S. Prison Industry, edited by Daniel Burton-Rose

Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison by Jeffrey Reiman.

The Real War on Crime: The Report of the National Criminal Justice Commission, edited by Steven Donziger

In the Belly of the Beast: Letters from Prison by Jack Henry Abbott

Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis by Christian Parenti

Suggested Websites and Links:

www.prisonsucks.com

www.facts1.com

www.drugwarfacts.org

www.criticalresistance.org

www.droptherock.org

www.truthaboutprisons.com

U.S. Department of Justice

The views and opinions expressed herein by the author do not necessarily represent the opinions or position of Playahata.com.