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Blog Post #9 Final Infographic

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Civic Action Assessment of Issue

I have not volunteered with my issue.

That said just because I have not been civically engaged doesn’t mean I won’t do anything in the future. The biggest part of our civic duty is to vote and if any proposition gets on the ballot getting rid of private prisons or any proposition that helps prisoners be treated more fairly I will vote for it (after doing my research to make sure it isn’t another misleading proposition like prop 22).

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Legislative and Executive Action

H.R. 3884: MORE Act of 2019 introduced  july 23 2019

it originated in the house and will be considered next week

it removes marijuana from the list of controlled substances and decriminalizes it. This would help my civic action issue as cannabis and other victimless crimes were a big way that private prisons got prisoners.

the bill was proposed by democrats and wile there are a couple republican sponsors the vast majority of support is from democrats. this makes it less likely to pass than a bill wit bipartisan support.

the bill had many committees including, House Agriculture, House Education and Labor House Energy and Commerce, House Natural Resources, House Oversight and Reform, House Small Business, House Judiciary, House Ways and Means. so this bill was evaluated by many committees.

I would encourage my representative to vote yay as cannabis shouldn’t be a schedule 1 substance.

the department of justice is in charge.

their mission statement is “To enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law; to ensure public safety against threats foreign and domestic; to provide federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime; to seek just punishment for those guilty of unlawful behavior; and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans.“ This mission statement doesn’t mention private prisons.

they have a background in law and have served in this position before so while they definitely lean right they are qualified.

I found the document for “ Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program Guideline” and while it sets requirements that a private prison has to follow the very fact they are driven by profit is the problem if they could get rid of private prisons would both help the budget and increase the chance a prisoner can integrate back into society.

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California Proposition Assessment

1. Prop 20: Changes to Criminal Penalties and Parole

2. It redefines several crimes to make them “woblers” that can be charged as felonies or misdemeanors. Makes parole harder to achieve for nonviolent crimes, defines more crimes as violent and overall makes the prison system less forgiving.

3. it would cost millions annually to enforce and increase the prison population.

4. 61% voted no, this was closer than I expected but I am glad it did not pass.

5. Lots of police groups and unions and for some reason Safeway? The supporters of this proposition are mostly all police related showing how it is about “security” and not necessarily safety. the supporters show us what a proposition actually is hoping to achieve by who it is going to benefit, in this case police and prisons.

6. arguments for focus on how lenient California is on non violent crimes like rape and the arguments against are saying that we have passed all these previous measures to make the prison system more fair and non violent crimes aren’t a big problem right now.

7. I did vote no on this proposition I read the law, then looked at its backers and decided to vote no because I did not want it to pass.

8. How expensive it would be, I did not think it would have been such an expensive thing had it have passed (especially because it had no way to fund the extra cost in the proposition.)

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Political Interest Groups and PACs Assessment

 National H.I.R.E. Network

They want to reintegrate prisoners into society via providing employment opportunities to prisoners after release.

3They support any legislation that increases access to employment to inmates. stop employers from viewing arrest info that didn’t lead to conviction. Make it so you can’t be banned from working at a place due to past convictions. Promotes anti discrimination laws. and they promote the increased use of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit.

They support a bill in new york that increases the health services power to hopefully contain sickness outbreaks in prisons.

They are located in new york and due to covid they do not have any meeting planned.

They don’t currently and are asking for people to show their congressperson their voice on the prison employment problem.

The website had really good graphics.

SUPER PAC

Senate Leadership Fund

They are anti democrat - pro republican super PAC

They have raised $308,903,019 spent $245,900,852 with $235,137,768 of that being independent.

Total For Democrats: $0 Total Against Democrats: $213,046,734 Total For Republicans: $14,937,210

Total Against Republicans: $774,083

This doesn’t surprise me as they are a pro republican PAC (or I guess anti democrat)

ADELSON, MIRIAM from ADELSON DRUG CLINIC . Not really a predominant figure but an example of the overwhelming amount of big business/pharma companies that donated.

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Election 2020 Presidential Candidates Assessment

          Howie Hawkins/Angela Nicole Walker, Green

They don’t explicitly mention private prisons but they state stances that would make private prisons much more difficult.

I agree with their stance as taking away private prisons profit sources is always a good thing.

The green party platform does mention private prisons and banning them unlike the candidate who doesn’t explicitly mention it but the candidate still apposes much of the policies that make private prisons possible.

        Donald J. Trump/Michael R. Pence, Republican

he didn’t mention private prisons or prison reform but his actions in the last 4 years have helped private prisons immensely so his actions speak for themselves

I disagree with his position, private prisons have insensitive making repeat offenders and don’t help rehabilitate those who need rehabilitation.

the party platform is against private prisons and they have failed to back that up with the candidates actually helping them

        Gloria La Riva/Sunil Freeman, Peace and Freedom

strongly against “ For the Earth to live, capitalism must be replaced by a socialist system “

I agree with their position on private prisons but I wouldn’t go that far I do think private prisons should be abolished.

The candidate takes a stronger stance than the party platform but I don’t think that's a bad thing.

        Roque De La Fuente "Rocky" Guerra/Kanye Omari American Independent

everything on the candidates website is about needing to overhaul everything about America I doubt that doesn’t include prisons

I think prisons need to change but america as a whole? maybe not.

        Jo Jorgensen/Jeremy "Spike" Cohen, Libertarian

Thinks the prisons need heavy reform including ending the war on drugs which is a major funding stream for private prisons

I would appreciate a more defined stance but cutting much of their funding is the next best thing.

the candidate stance and party platform are very similar.

        Joseph R. Biden/Kamala D. Harris, Democratic

"Stop corporations from profiteering off of incarceration.” is a strong stance against private prisons

I agree with Biden in the fact that private prisons should be abolished.

Biden and party platform agree.

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Political Party Action

Republican - prisons should be put into hands of public officials (against private prisons) I agree with what they say in their document but they have done very little to back up the writing.

Democrat “ Democrats support ending the use of private prisons and private detention centers “ I also agree with what is said by the democratic party but the difference is they have done a lot to get rid of private prisons, in democrat controlled states such as California private prisons are well on their way out.

Libertarian - not mentioned but want to get rid of victimless crimes which would cut one of the major revenue sources of private prisons so if they would really remove victimless crimes it would be better than just letting private prisons be. though this could cause them to cost cut and leave prisoners even worse off.

Green - ban private prisons, great plan don’t lay out any plan to do it and it would be a very difficult task to do in 4 years, though very solid and good stance.

Peace and Freedom - private prisons not explicitly mentioned but they name many of the sources of revenue for private prisons and want to get rid of them, this can be good by making prison less profitable but will make prisons cost cut and not help prisoners have programs to readjust to the outside world.

I most identify with the democratic party because they have actually been dismantling private prisons, this is not a surprise as my family is a democrat and we live in California, and yes I would vote for their candidate.

private prisons were not brought up during the first debate.

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Media Assessment of Issue

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-the-u-s-is-right-to-move-away-from-private-prisons

SUBJECT the DOJ’s plans to phase out 13 private prisons, while being a small step keeps the conversation of how to continue alive. AUTHOR Clint Smith, he is a author and poet with several awards to his name and he leans right. CONTEXT it was produced in 2016 by the new Yorker, its a bit old but produced by a reputable source AUDIENCE it was published by the new Yorker, the new Yorker leans to the left most of the time so that has to be remembered when reading it. PERSPECTIVE the article is quite subjective and biased right but with a few statistics, the author seems to think closing these 13 prisons is a good first step and more will follow, with the benefit of the fact that it is 4 years after the article is wrote, I can say he was wrong. SIGNIFICANCE the main evidence used was 13 prisons closing, effecting 22k prisoners, along with amounts of money spent lobbying by private prisons.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/private-prison-industry-backs-trump-prepares-biden-wins-72353321

SUBJECT the two largest private prisons are  backing Donald trump as he has been soft of prisons and Biden won’t be AUTHOR NOMAAN MERCHANT, part of the associated press and specializes in boarder/immigration news and is an independent. CONTEXT this article was produced in august 2020 so it’s recent and produced by abc news a reputable source AUDIENCE, abc news is moderate and unbiased and overall a reliable source PERSPECTIVE this is a very objective article, giving lots of stats and not much opinion or analysis. SIGNIFICANCE lots of stats are presented in this article, from the amount private prisons make from ice alone to what Biden pledged he would do if elected to how much private prisons have donated to trump.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/465452-california-will-end-use-of-for-profit-prisons

SUBJECT California’s bill that lays out a plan to move away from private prisons AUTHOR Reid Wilson, he has been with the hill for a while and specializes in political journalism. CONTEXT the article was produced by the hill in October 2019, no super recent but still relent news and the hill is well respected and leans right AUDIENCE the hill is quite reliable. PERSPECTIVE the perspective is very objective listing lots of facts. SIGNIFICANCE lots of evidence is used, how much private prisons make in California, how much the private prison population has increased recently, along with several statements from democrats, ice and afew others.

What are the similarities and differences between these three accounts of your issue?

they all include multiple perspectives and data to back up their claims and all agree that private prisons should be abolished because they value to stock holder not actually rehabilitating prisoners

Finally, which source do you identify with most and why?

I thought abc news did the best job of the 3 with the most stats and most opinions from different peaple.

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CONCEPTUALIZING THE ISSUE AND ASSESSING TYPES OF ACTION

I choose Prisoner’s rights specifically private prisons because, while prison is a necessary evil it should focus on rehabilitation and making sure the people who leave prison have learned there lesson and hopefully never return, but under the current process prisons are incentivized to keep people in as long as possible and make repeat offenders. The issue of private prisons about how prisons are driven by profit not the want to make good citizens, causing many repeat offenders and some people to spend most of their life in prison and whenever they leave they can’t adjust back to normal life. The action that needs to be taken is getting rid of private prisons full stop. if the profit aspect of prison is removed prisons will be able to focus on rehabilitation and making good citizens.