ticians are pushing for the privatization of the prison systems. A newspaper article dated December 28, 1861 presented the similarities between the government then and now. The article basically describes that African Americans were being incarcerated in record numbers similar to that which is happening presently. It also states that free slaves living in the capital were often jailed under the suspect of having been run away slaves. They were kept in prison for a term of one year, where upon release they were required to pay a fee or be sold back into slavery. Finally, congress was forced to intervene because innocent African Americans were being incarcerated and resold into slavery in record numbers. Quote from that member in congress, “ We last week alluded to the revelation which have been made in Washington, of the confinement of the Negroes in that city, for no other cause than their color. Under laws derogatory of the spirit of the age, in violation of the percepts of Christianity and preeminently disgraceful to the fame of the nations capitol”. The matter was brought before congress and a general McClellan was to arrest all persons who may attempt to imprison blacks on the grounds of there being fugitives.The prison industrial complex also had a political connection as far back as the early 1970’s. In January 1973, then governor of New York, Nelson Rockefeller gave an address demanding that every illegal drug dealer be punished with a mandatory prison sentence of life without parole. Rockefeller demonstrated his “commitment” to the state of New York by proposing the harshest drug laws in the United States. Governor Rockefeller argued not only that drug dealers be imprisoned for life but also that plea-bargaining should be forbidden in such cases and that even juvenile offenders should receive life sentences. Rockefeller drug laws, which were enacted a few months later, were quite sever...
