Nexus - 0604 - New Times Magazine-pages

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Oklahoma and Tennessee. Correctional Corporation of America, THE WAR ON DRUGS one of the largest private prison owners, already operates interna- The "War on Drugs", launched by President Reagan in the mid- tionally, with more than 48 facilities in 11 states, Puerto Rico, the 1980s, has been fought on interlocking international and domestic United Kingdom and Australia. Under contract by government to fronts. At the international level, the war on drugs has been both run prisons and paid a fixed sum per prisoner, these firms operate, a cynical cover-up of US Government involvement in the drug as the profit motive mandates, as cheaply and efficiently as possi- trade, as well as justification for US military intervention and con- ble. This means lower wages for staff, no unions and fewer ser- trol in the Third World. vices for prisoners. Private contracts also mean less public scruti- Over the last 50 years, the primary goal of US foreign policy ny. Prison owners are raking in billions by cutting corners, which (and the military industrial complex) has been to fight commu- harms prisoners. Substandard diets, extreme overcrowding and nism and protect corporate interests. To this end, the US abuses by poorly trained personnel have all been documented and Government has, with regularity, formed strategic alliances with can be expected in these institutions which are unabashedly about drug dealers throughout the world. making money. At the conclusion of World War II, the OSS (precursor to the Prisons are also a leading rural growth CIA) allied itself with heroin traders on industry. With traditional agriculture the docks of Marseilles in an effort to being pushed aside by agribusiness, many wrest power away from communist dock rural American communities are facing workers. are falling over each olher lo secure a tne heroin-producing Hmong besten in prison facility of their own. Prisons are Under contract by the Golden Triangle area. In return for seen as a source of jobs in construction government to run prisons cooperation with the US Government's and for local vendors and prison staff, as 7 Fi war against the Vietcong and other nation- well as a source of tax revenues. An aver- and paid a fixed sum per al liberation forces, the CIA flew local age prison has a staff of several hundred prisoner, these firms heroin out of South East Asia and into employees and an annual payroll of sever- operate as the profit motive America. It's no accident that heroin 3 al million dollars. addiction in the US rose exponentially in tke any industty. he prison economy mandates, as cheaply and the 300s. a h ine b needs raw materials. In this case, the raw +s . or is it an accident that cocaine began materials are prisoners. The prison indus- efficiently as possible. to proliferate in the United States during trial complex can grow only if more and the 1980s. Central America is the strategic more people are incarcerated, even . halfway point for air travel between if crime rates drop. "Three strikes" Private contracts also mean Colombia and the United States. and mandatory minimums (harsh, less public scrutiny. The Contra war against Sandinista fixed sentences without parole) are Nicaragua as well as the war against two examples of the legal super- the national liberation forces in El structure quickly being put in place Salvador were largely about control to guarantee that the prison popula- of this critical area. When Congress tion will grow and grow and grow. cut off support for the Contras, Oliver North and friends found other ways to fund the Contra re-supply operations—in part, through drug dealing. Planes loaded with arms for the Contras took off from the southern United States, offloaded their weapons on private landing strips in Honduras, then loaded up with cocaine for the return trip. Prison owners are raking in billions by cutting corners, LABOUR AND THE FLIGHT which harms prisoners. OF CAPITAL The growth of the prison industri- al complex is inextricably tied to the fortunes of labour. Ever since the onset of the Reagan/Bush years in 1980, workers in the United States have been under siege. Aggressive union-busting, corporate deregulation, and especially the flight of A 1996 exposé by the San Jose Mercury News documented CIA capital in search of cheaper labour markets have been crucial fac- involvement in a Nicaraguan drug ring which poured thousands of tors in the downward plight of American workers. kilos of cocaine into Los Angeles African-American neighbour- One wave of capital flight occurred in the 1970s. hoods in the 1980s. Drug boss Danilo Blandon, now an informant Manufacturing industries such as textiles in the northeast moved for the DEA, acknowledged under oath the drugs-for-weapons south to South Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama—non-union deals with the CIA-sponsored Contras. states where wages were low. During the 1980s, many more US military presence in Central and Latin America has not industries (steel, auto, etc.) closed up shop, moving on to the stopped drug trafficking, but it has influenced aspects of the drug "more competitive atmospheres" of Mexico, Brazil or Taiwan, trade and is a powerful force of social control in the region. US where wages were a mere fraction of those in the United States military intervention, whether in propping up dictators or squash- and environmental, health and safety standards were much lower. ing peasant uprisings, now operates under cover of the righteous Most seriously hurt by these plant closures and layoffs were war against drugs and "narco-terrorism". African-Americans and semi-skilled workers in urban centres In Mexico, for example, US military aid supposedly earmarked who lost their decent-paying industrial jobs. for the drug war is being used to arm Mexican troops in the south- Into the gaping economic hole left by the exodus of jobs from ern part of the country. However, the drug trade (production, US cities has rushed another economy: the drug economy. transfer and distribution points) is all in the north. The "Drug Under contract by government to run prisons Sa ae 1 ee billions by cutting corners, which harms prisoners. 22 - NEXUS JUNE — JULY 1999 THE WAR ON DRUGS less public scrutiny.