by Jason Sibert<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Americans have taken to the streets since the killing of George\nFloyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our cities are experiencing some of the biggest demonstrations\nrelated to policing in years. The actions of certain police officers during the\ndemonstrations have been controversial. Police reform is being discussed in the\nmedia from different viewpoints and police reform legislation is being\nintroduced in Congress right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The debate over policing, connected to the prison-industrial\ncomplex in ways rarely discussed in the mainstream media, is really about\ncontrol. Ditto for the military-industrial complex. The social democrat seeks\nto give the individual control over his or her life by working for a\nmixed-economy, or a fair market economy that can churn out consumer goods and\nprotect the rights of working men and women through social insurance,\nregulation of business, and securing collective bargaining rights. However, the\nsocial democrat should also work for public safety and a defense that empowers\nthe individual, not the big money behind both the military-industrial complex\nand the prison-industrial complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The prison-industrial complex smothers the individuals that are\ncaught up in it. In any given year, there are 100,000 to 150,000 people jailed\nfor murder, another 100,000 to 150,000 jailed for armed robbery, and 100.000 to\n150,000 people jailed for a sexual offense of some sort. Our population is 327\nmillion. These numbers show that most of us in our country are not violent\ncriminals! However, the United States has five percent of the world\u2019s\npopulation but 25 percent of the world\u2019s prisoners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Writer Michael Lind\u2019s story \u201cLiberalism\u2019s Unfinished Agenda\u201d said\nthat our criminal justice system not only produces prisoners but also lawyers,\nas the U.S. has 50 percent of the world\u2019s lawyers. Lind condemned not only our\nnumber of prisoners and lawyers, but just about everything else about our\ncriminal justice system. He said, \u201cGrand juries are a rubber stamp for the\nprosecutors; assets are routinely frozen or seized in ex parte<\/em> on the basis of false government affidavits, so targets\ndon\u2019t have the resources to pay avaricious American counsel and are thrust into\nthe hands of public defenders, who are usually just Judas goats for the\nprosecutors. The plea bargain system, for which prosecutors would be disbarred\nin most other serious countries, enables prosecutors to threaten everyone\naround the target with indictment if they don\u2019t miraculously recall, under\ncareful government coaching, inculpatory evidence. Prosecutors win 95 percent\nof their cases, 90 percent of those without trial, and people who exercise\ntheir constitutionally guaranteed right to go to trial received more than three\ntimes the sentence they receive if they cop a plea, as a penalty for exercising\ntheir rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The prison-industrial complex also includes companies that build\nprivate prisons, as these companies have a financial incentive to build more\nprisons and imprison more non-violent offenders. It also includes\npoliticians who want prisons in their districts to provide jobs. Non-violent\noffenders often have trouble finding employment, turning to a cycle of crime which\ncreates a lot of business for the prison-industrial complex. It should be\nobvious to any social democrat that this segment of the economy does little to\ncreate value for our economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lind attacked the military-industrial complex in his story, \u201cThe\nWar Socialism of the American Right.\u201d He addressed the issue of high-ranking\nmilitary officers who spend their military careers receiving socialized\nmedicine and then go to work for military contractors that do business\nprimarily with the government. Military manufacturing is protected a lot more\nthan civilian manufacturing, as Lind pointed out that between 2000 and 2009,\nmilitary manufacturing increased 125 percent while civilian manufacturing\ncontracted 25 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organs of soft power \u2013 foreign aid and diplomacy \u2013 are not funded\nas well as the organs of the military-industrial complex, as they don\u2019t produce\nthe economic cycle of the military-industrial complex even though they are less\nexpensive. Social democrats should push back against the power of both the\nprison-industrial complex and the military-industrial complex because we\nbelieve in an economy that empowers individuals and helps those in the middle\nand lower portions of the income spectrum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Money can be moved from both areas to sheltering homeless people,\nas police sometimes receive calls on panhandling from the homeless. Many in law\nenforcement do not like dealing with this issue and it would cease to be an\nissue if the homeless had shelter. We can also stop treating drug addiction\nlike a law enforcement problem and expand our public health system to deal with\nit, using money from the military-industrial complex and prison-industrial\ncomplex. It must be noted that some states are legalizing marijuana, and this\nis a positive development. In addition, non-violent offenders need to be doing\ncommunity service and not unproductive prison time. We could also shovel funds\nfrom these two unproductive sectors of our economy into subsides for\nmanufacturers that make products for pandemics like Covid-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The U.S. has adopted social democratic reforms in the past \u2013\nSocial Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Affordable Care Act, Temporary Need for\nNeedy Families, and unemployment insurance. However, we can become more social\ndemocratic if we take on both the military-industrial complex and the\nprison-industrial complex!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jason\nSibert is the executive director of the Peace Economy Project<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Jason Sibert Americans have taken to the streets since the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis. Our cities are experiencing some of the biggest demonstrations related to policing in years. The actions of certain police … Continue reading