… Or getting another Masters to avoid paying it off.
… Or getting another Masters to avoid paying it off.
Who’s Getting Rich Off the Prison-Industrial Complex?
You likely already know how overcrowded and abusive the US prison system is, and you probably are also aware that the US has more people in prison than even China or Russia. In this age of privatization, of course, it’s also not surprising that many of the detention centers are not actually operated by the government, but by for-profit companies. So clearly, some people are making lots and lots of money off the booming business of keeping human beings in cages.
But who are these people?
Using NASDAQ data, I looked through the long list of investors in Corrections Corporation of America andGEO Group, the two biggest corporations that operate detention centers in the US, to find out who was cashing in the most on prisons. When we say “prison-industrial complex,” this is who we’re talking about.
Henri Wedell
The individual who’s invested the most in private prisons is Henri Wedell, who started serving on CCA’s board of directors in 2000, when the company was struggling with scandals related to prisoner abuse and mismanagement. He now owns more than 650,000 shares in the company, which is far more successful these days. Those shares are worth more than $25 million.I called Wedell to ask him what it was like to make a fortune from the incarceration of others, and whether it bothered him to profit off a system that puts more people in prison than any other country in the world.
“America is the freest country in the world,” he told me. “America allows more freedom than any other country in the world, much more than Russia and a whole lot more than Scandinavia, where they really aren’t free. So offering all this freedom to society, there’ll be a certain number of people, more in this country than elsewhere, who take advantage of that freedom, abuse it, and end up in prison. That happens because we are so free in this country.”
Presumably, when he’s referring to all the freedom Americans have, he’s not including the 80,000 inmates in 60 prisons operated by CCA.
Parisians walk on the street past lottery and vermouth advertisements in 1935.
Photograph by Maynard Owen Williams, National Geographic
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Whirr - Junebouvier
I don’t like this feeling.
I talk to myself cause no ones listening and i don’t care.
My youth stays inside.
Fun is blinding, calms the nervous sight.
But i don’t like the sun in my eyes waiting.
The more i stare i feel cheated when aging.
Hey June.
I want to feel safe.
Please stay for a while.
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Sammy Davis Jr., Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier photographed by Philippe Halsman for Life magazine (outtake), February 1966.
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"Whenever I went out to play, my mother wanted to know exactly where I was going to be. When I’d come in, she’d call me into her bedroom, take me into her arms, and cover me with kisses. She’d stroke my hair and say, “I love you so much,” and when I sneezed she’d say, “Bless you, you know how much I love you, don’t you?” and when I got up for a tissue she’d say “Let me get it for you I love you so much,” and when I looked for a pen to do my homework she’d say, “Use mine, anything for you,” and when I had an itch on my leg she’d say, “Is this the spot, let me hug you,” and when I said I was going up to my room she’d call after me, “What can I do for you I love you so much,” and I always wanted to say, but never said: Love me less."
Nicole Krauss, The History of Love (via ofthewebandtherock)
:(
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"Just in case you ever foolishly forget; I’m never not thinking of you."
Virginia Woolf, Selected Letters (via petite—fleur)
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geometric flower cover up by alice carrier at anatomy tattoo in portland, oregon
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