Hey, what the heck is prison doing in your living room?
Florida Atlantic University recently accepted $5-6 million from the “charitable” arm of GEO Group, a controversial private prison administrator operating in several states. Despite the long-sought windfall, things don’t bode well for FAU: just minutes after news of the deal reached the NY Times, a company spokesperson was caught altering the firm’s Wikipedia entry, attempting to hide the history of human rights abuses that took place in several GEO-run facilities.
Let’s be honest: the buying and selling of naming rights for buildings and sports stadiums has become a ho-hum fact of life. But a university selling those rights to the private prison industry feels like an exasperating defeat. Given the country’s incarceration trends, some of the same young men competing under that banner will likely live under it someday as prison inmates (and cheap labor).
This is a savvy, if scary, move on the part of GEO Group, the nation’s second largest private prison administrator and a company that cites crime reduction and marijuana decriminalization as threats. Becoming the largest and most profitable firm of its ilk will require deeper and more diversified investment, and what better place to start than by linking your name to a beloved American pastime? The general public may not yet comprehend how much of a prison nation we’ve become, but this sure is a smart, preemptive way to get ‘em comfy with the GEO brand, isn’t it? Welcome to Rollerball.
But let’s dig a little deeper into our benevolent new sports fans. Under GEO Group guard towers, the unhealthy are weeded out (in some cases, through death-by-denial-of-medication), while the rest are divided up into groups based on age, mental acuity, obedience and yes, ethnicity to serve as worker bees. For whom? Why, for companies to whom GEO Group has contracted this labor (for a profit) and for sister firms owned by the same group of investors – who of course are looking, above all, to make a profit.
This characteristic of the private prison world is already very much a reality in America, though for many it’s a fact that has stayed buried in the social subconscious. Until now, we had yet to see the industry take a step so boldly into our living rooms, our televisions, our sports. Talk about supporting the contention that prison is no longer for “those” (read: other) people! Think about how often, during televised football games, the name of the company that owns the rights to the stadium is mentioned – such positive advertising! Even better, law-abiding, tuition-paying parents, FAU athletes, and students will bear the name of their corporate sponsor with pride, now that it’s been conflated with allegiance to the school itself.
Let’s reverse this trend of money first, justice maybe. Send a message to GEO Group that they can’t use schools and athletes to get you more comfortable with the idea of labor camps replacing successful re-entry programs, and tycoons replacing wardens. Sign the petition, keep up with the latest developments, and for God’s sake, stay out of the sort of trouble that might get you locked up – especially in a corporate prison.
Uh, Kids for Cash anyone?
The lack of concern about the welfare of people in prisons is very depressing. Back in the 19th century there was much discussion about prisons and what punishment was best suited to various crimes. Was the punishment the denial of freedom? If so, was it therefore unjust to also demand free labor from prisoners? Leading writers of the day campaigned with great effect – public hangings were abolished largely as a result of the efforts of writers such as Thackeray and Dickens. Dickens wrote extensively about the new style of prisons he was shown on his trips to the US and was horrified by the treatment of prisoners (http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/pva/pva344.html). Yet now, in the supposedly more informed, better educated 21st century, the majority of people don’t give it a second thought, or claim that “they deserve it,” and that prisoners are not worth two seconds of their concern. There is no dialogue, and no concern. The “good people” go their own way, distracting themselves with reality television and talent shows, while the proportion of their fellow citizens who are incarcerated grows by the day.
Genuine compassion is a stranger. So depressing.
Hang ’em all…more humane.