News Service of Florida: 5 Questions for Jim McDonough

by Margie Menzel, The News Service of Florida 

The below article containing the responses of former Florida Department of Corrections Secretary, Jim McDonough was published today.

Secretary McDonough answered tough questions about Governor Rick Scott's continuing pursuit of privatization of everything "Prison" in Florida...

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James R. McDonough was the secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections from 2006 to 2008. He was tapped by Gov. Jeb Bush, for whom he'd worked as Florida's drug czar since 1999. McDonough moved to DOC after Bush fired Secretary James Crosby, who later went to prison for taking kickbacks.

His no-nonsense style proved the antidote to scandal at DOC. He fired or demoted dozens of prison officials and instituted random drug tests and mandatory fitness programs for employees. He angered many, but is widely credited for cleaning up the place.

Since leaving DOC, McDonough has stayed active in corrections. He's involved with the "smart justice" movement to cut recidivism via substance abuse and mental health treatment and basic education for prisoners. He also favors diversion programs and other reforms, and is comfortable sailing against the political winds.

"Politics in Florida has been such that public officials are afraid to appear, quote, weak on crime," he said. "And the way that's defined is, 'Don't lighten up on the sentencing in any way whatsoever.'"

A retired Army colonel, McDonough has won three Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart. He's written three books: "Platoon Leader;" "The Defense of Hill 781;" and "The Limits of Glory."

The News Service of Florida has five questions for Jim McDonough:

Q: Privatization is a big part of Gov. Rick Scott's approach to cutting prison costs. Agree or disagree?

McDONOUGH: I don't agree. There are some things government has to do. If you're going to be incarcerating its citizens, that's a state function, not a for-profit function. Right away, you have problems when you take that approach.

I think Florida became a very lucrative state to market private prison systems and the services that came with it. The medical issue, I think, is tied in with all of that. If the state is going to arrest people and put them behind bars, it picks up the obligation to look after their health – and not market that out to the most attractive bidder, which usually means the lowest bidder.

I'm not surprised Florida became such a target for the private companies. It's a huge market, and became, on the surface, an attractive way to go.

Now, in my opinion, it's the obligation of the state. I think if it becomes the obligation of the state, it'll be justly met. But if you turn it into an enterprise, with commercial profits involved, it's a risky business.

Q: The backers of private prisons argue they're more efficient than state prisons. True?

McDONOUGH: In my time as head of the corrections system of Florida, I considered it my obligation to look into the housing of all of the inmates, whether they were cared for by the state or the private prisons.

Clearly there was an effort to send to the privates the easier inmates to handle. That meant that you don’t have the more misbehaving inmates or the more dangerous inmates or the more medically ill inmates going to the privates. So for the privates, that becomes an advantage. If you're not working overtime to take care of all of that, and spending the money, then the overall outcome appears to be less expensive.

But it's not. When [private prisons] grow and take increasing percentages of the inmates, they get the ill as well as the well. They get the violent as well as the non-violent. They get the dangerous as well as the stable, and so on. So I always thought that the selling point that it could be done at a percent less than it cost the state to care for an inmate was absolutely skewed data.

One of their prime conceptions was to hire employees at the lowest possible wage level. I thought that meant there was not as careful a pick of who was going to work in the system. And my observation, going into the prisons, was that was political. And that meant, therefore, that the discipline, the behavior, the control within the privates were not up to the standards they should have been.

Q: You backed a bill last session to allow non-violent, drug-addicted inmates to move from prison to treatment programs after serving half their time. Why did it fail?

McDONOUGH: I continue to see some well-respected law enforcement officials arguing that any questioning of [current sentencing guidelines] proves there's a lack of understanding of the seriousness of crime. I think that's nonsense.

The Legislature, which is largely Republican, passed it. Not only did they pass it, it passed with overwhelming numbers. So there you had a good idea, a good bill, tremendous political support. And then you had shrill voices saying, "Oh, no, no, no...We shouldn't do this, because it'll be weak on crime."

And lo and behold, the governor vetoed it. It was an unbelievable instance of a lost opportunity, of playing to this over-inflated, get-tough-on-crime mystique.

Q: But hasn't the crime rate been going down? Doesn't that suggest getting tougher works?

McDONOUGH: Yes, when you get tougher on crime and you get a very violent criminal who's on a crime spree and can't change his behavior, incarcerating that guy and keeping him a long time does have an effect on public safety. I'm all for that.

But it's like a pendulum swinging. If you go too far, it's going to crash back of its own weight. The crash-back we have seen, by incorporating everybody into these policies and laws that lead to more time in prison.

It's just too expensive. You have caught up in this pendulum swing a lot of people who would not be doing damage on the outside, and who – with a little bit of money invested in their rehabilitation – would probably do quite well.

Q: Florida was just cited for a 166 percent increase in the average sentence between 1990 and 2009 – the most of any state. Other states have dialed back their sentences. Why not Florida?

McDONOUGH: Other states that are conservative in their political structure, like Texas, actually have gone the other way. They've really flattened out their prison growth. They've saved hundreds of millions of dollars on prison construction, and they have seen crime decrease.

So the examples are out there. Florida is sort of a holdout, on an idea that has seen its day, served a purpose for a bit, but now has gone too far. I'd like to see Florida come into the modern age a bit, and come up with smart justice approaches. 

ALEC, Koch and the Conservative led "War on the Middle Class"...

I've written extensively about the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the likes of Charles and David Koch, the Council for National Policy, the Heritage Foundation, Reason Foundation, CATO Institute, Freedom Works...etc, etc., and their involvement in starting, funding and advancing similar agendas targeting legislation beneficial to their corporate interests.

Usually I write about involvement of this core group related to incarceration, prison privatization and prison industries. I know to many this is simply not considered a "Hot Topic" - either in personal, business or political terms. This diary is published to show why it should be a hot topic and how the mechanics employed in this one ALEC led initiative is demonstrative of their agenda regarding pursuit of even more important issues facing us today.

I'll begin by saying that over the past decade we have been involved in a huge class war here in the U.S. It has been mostly ignored by many, because the skirmishes have been small scale when compared to larger issues that dominate our media and thus our minds. However, each of these tiny battles have led us to the situation today where the entire middle class is in a battle for it's very existence. The battle is brought upon us by the corporate elite representing the wealthiest segment of our society.

Criminal justice is but one of those "skirmishes" in this war. It is an important one though, for several reasons. The most important aspect is the huge financial windfall realized by these corporatists from our state and federal budgets for incarceration. The billions spent by the middle class on incarceration, is siphoned off through prison privatization of those incarcerated and by companies profiting off of incarceration in general; privatized health, food services, canteen operations, transportation, banking services, phone contracts and of huge importance - privatized prison industries.

Reports by independent and informed sources, provide statistics that as of 2007, American taxpayers spent $74 billion annually on incarceration, an increase of 72% since 1997 (Tracey Kyckelhahn, Justice Expenditure and Employment Extracts 2007, Table 1(Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2010) as reported by the Justice Policy Institute this week. Out of this huge sum of tax dollars, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and Geo Group (Geo) jointly reported $2.9 billion in revenue for 2010 alone (Corrections Corporation of America, 2010 Annual Report, 2011; The GEO Group, 2010 Annual Report (Boca Raton, FL): The GEO Group, 2011).

In addition to these "earned" profits by CCA and Geo, another $2.4 billion was taken in by companies through the sale of prisoner made goods in 2009. Together the private companies involved in private prison operations and prison industries are realizing more than $5 billion in income per year. This amount does not include peripheral income such as the profits made by Bail bond agents and insurers, medical, food service, banking or sale of products used in prison; chemical sprays, security equipment, construction of new prisons and expansion of existing ones. Altogether an estimated $11 billion dollars changes hands annually from U.S. incarceration and prison industries.

To anyone suffering through the economic situation over the past two or three years, this is a HUGE sum of money - and most of it paid out of state and federal appropriations set aside for correctional services and operations. Conservatives would have us believe that all these incarceration costs are because we as a society demand that we be made safe by locking up every possible individual that commits an offense against us - personally or upon our property. We're told it is because of these demands that so many are imprisoned and the cost of that imprisonment so expensive. These arguments have been used by Republicans since 1980 to increase incarceration by more than 650%, while putting into place legislation that allows their corporate masters and benefactors to realize the most profits possible from locking up everyone and throwing away the key.

Now lets take a close look at how this was done, why and the "mechanics". By doing this I'll demonstrate how these same manipulations and tactics are being used in a similar manner to win the "skirmishes" and ultimately this Class War - that is not even recognized as happening by many Americans...

From 1980 ALEC has been involved in writing model legislation involving criminal justice at the state level (lauding such efforts at their web site). Simultaneously through their huge number of Alumni who have gone on to posts within the federal government, or have been elected to the U.S. Congress, they also have pushed for federal legislation that comports with their state efforts; three strike laws, minimum mandatory drug and gun laws, truth in sentencing laws, replacement of government programs to provide bonding for those charged with, abolishing parole and similar legislation. These efforts have resulted today in more than 2.4 million of us incarcerated.

Also from 1980 on, ALEC developed and pushed their Model Legislation to expand privatization of state and federal prison facilities. Their Model Legislation's such as:

Targeted Contracting for Certain Correctional Facilities and Services Act
Resolution on Prison Expenditures
Inmate Labor Disclosure Act
Housing Out-of-State Prisoners in a Private Prison Act

have all been designed to benefit their long time members, CCA and Geo Group.
From 1993 ALEC has also been actively pursuing involvement in prison industry legislation. Their model legislation titled the "Prison Industries Act" is based upon exploiting the federal Prison Industries Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP) to allow private sector corporations, businesses and companies access to and use of prisoner labor as a cheap workforce and a means of increasing profits.

Through their legislative efforts, ALEC helped create our huge prison population of today. They were able to implement their model legislation on privatization of prisons in many states and on the federal level, creating a huge business niche with substantial profits for CCA and Geo. ALEC's efforts of privatization of prison industries - or allowance of the use of prisoners for corporate labor were equally successful, again resulting in huge profits to manufacturers and other member companies.

Now let's look at how they accomplished all of this so easily...

The criminal justice legislation mentioned above created the "workforce" for their prison industry initiatives. What needed to be done next was to expand prison industry operations state by state to create cheap jobs for inmates and high profits for their corporate membership.

Along came Ray Allen. Allen was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1993. As a "freshman" Conservative Republican lawmaker Allen was attracted to ALEC and joined their ranks. In 1993, legislation sponsored by Allen offered tax credits to corporations, encouraging them to engage in prison industries. In1997 he introduced ALEC's Model Prison Industries Act as proposed legislation in Texas and it became law. In 1999 he introduced more legislation on the state prison industry program and subsequent legislation amendments to his original legislation. While Allen was working so diligently on behalf of ALEC and prison industries, he became Chairman of the House Corrections Committee and ALEC's Criminal Justice and Homeland Security Task Force Chairman. In those capacities he assisted prison privatization efforts on behalf of ALEC members CCA and Geo side by side with his prison industry work.

In 1998 Allen participated in a meeting in Washington, D.C. titled: "Policies and Programs In Prison Industries". Key Note speaker was AG Janet Reno and other speakers included Pam Davis, PRIDE CEO and Chairman of the NCIA, FL. U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Crime (that just months before chaired a hearing on expansion of the federal prison industries). Also present as moderator was Warren Cikins, a representative of the Brookings Institution, another Koch and ALEC affiliate. Allen was also secretly lobbying on behalf of the National Correctional Industries Association (NCIA). As you can see from the articles and links, ALEC, the NCIA, Ray Allen and Koch affiliated Brookings Institution all came together at that meeting to promote expanding the PIECP program so that more corporations could take advantage of prison labor.

The U.S.Department of Justice issued the PIECP final guideline within 6 months of this "workshop meeting" attended by all of the above. Once the federal law was in place, prison industry in the U.S. exploded exponentially - along with the access to that labor by private corporations, many of which were members of ALEC or affiliated with Koch, Heritage or similar Conservative organizations and individuals. The results of the coordinated legislative and lobbying efforts of these lawmakers, corporations, individuals and organizations such as ALEC is today's estimated $2.5 billion dollar prison industry operation.

Just last October Attorney General Holder issued a memo applauding the continued growth of the federal prison population, and urged all federal procurement officers to "open their UNICOR" catalogs and buy - buy - buy products from them so they could expand the prison industries and put more inmates to work. With first Janet Reno and now Holder supporting this exploitation of prisoners as a workforce, the corruption has escalated to the highest office of law enforcement in the U.S. Such is the pervasive nature of this beast - fed by ALEC.

From the profits garnered from prison industries, and privatization, corporate members of ALEC contributed huge sums back to ALEC and affiliated right wing PAC's and political organizations. Conservatives have used both of these "Initiatives" to enrich themselves and to help fund other political efforts of ALEC and the likes of Koch through the Heritage and Reason foundations, etc. In plain terms, this money is being used to promote today's Republican initiatives: repealing healthcare, voter disenfranchisement, privatization of more jails, prisons and state operated facilities. Privatization and prison industry of the past is fueling ALEC and Koch's efforts against the middle class today.

Until this past year many of us had no idea there was even a "war" ongoing against the middle class. We perceived the machinations of the Bush administration and Republicans as simply more of the same political rhetoric between the parties that had been continuing for decades, and chose to ignore it and we did it at our own peril. By our ignorance we allowed this cabal to amass a huge - almost insurmountable - financial war chest, which they used in 2010 to push many Democrats and moderate Republicans from office. With a majority in state governors, state assemblies and ALEC Alumni (Boehner, Cantor, Kasich, Walker and others) holding U.S. and state positions of power and influence they believe they are now in a position of minority strength. They're using that influence to push ALEC's agenda over the top.

If you look at what's been happening on the front lines in Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio - to name just the top three states - and compare what's happening today to what has transpired in privatization and prison industry efforts in the past, we can easily discern the same pattern. ALEC member, the American Bail Coalition has used ALEC lawmaker members in Wisconsin to slip through a budget amendment to make way for a return of commercial bail bonding in that state. Previous legislative efforts to do that failed, so this time Rep. Robin Vos instead squeezed a last-minute provision into the state budget to enable the ABC to regain commercial bonding in Wisconsin. Of Course, Vos also serves as ALEC's Wisconsin State Chair.

A similar budget manipulation in Florida resulted in more than $100 million being slid to ALEC member GEO Group to build an unnecessary private prison facility in that state in 2008-09. This was accomplished by then ALEC member (and Alumni) Marcos Rubio and FL. House Speaker, Ray Sansom who has already resigned due to corruption and faces indictment for:

Perhaps the most notable individual charged to date is former Rep. Ray Sansom (R-Destin), who while serving as Rubio's budget chief inserted language into the Florida's 2008-2009 budget for what was to become Blackwater CF.

The FBI just issued subpoenas and is fully investigating that entire incident, looking particularly at the campaign contributions and lobbyist payments by Geo Group and to Rubio and Sansom. The fact that Florida has been forced to close up to five state run prisons to accommodate Geo's thirst for more prisoners in their beds, has been ignored by Governor Scott - another corporate hawk looking to fatten his own pocket. In fact Scott just supported legislation to privatize 18 counties in South Florida (home to Geo Group's headquarters) that will put another 15,000 state inmates in Geo's control at the taxpayer expense - a move even some Republicans oppose.

This, I think, clearly demonstrates the vast money being funneled into the pockets of legislators by corporations determined to have their way regarding access to taxpayer money. Today the President is faced with the challenge of repulsing the Republican's demands for no tax increases (actually rescinding the tax breaks given by Bush) while they go after Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and other safety nets important to the middle class. President Obama must be made to see that he has to draw the line on cutting important programs for the middle class and stand firm on repealing the tax breaks that he extended just last year. We have to begin to slow the until now uncontrolled flow of money into the corporate coffers and from there into the campaigns and special interest projects of ALEC's alumni serving as U.S. lawmakers or Conservatives. Repealing these corporate tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy will begin to diminish that flow. Repealing the PIECP laws - or even just enforcing the mandatory laws of the program - will turn that tap another full turn and lessen access to the $2.5 billion prison industry by private companies and ALEC's corporate members. Doing both would severely limit the funding of the Conservative efforts in their unstated open war against the middle class.

Make no doubt, we are in fact under attack from all angles by these efforts. The media owned primarily by conglomerates and corporate masters such as Fox, Bloomberg and Gannett won't report on this war or the battles being fought on all these fronts. Instead they fill their shows, papers and radio reports with inane topics and when something surfaces that points to this war, they downplay the incident, and convince their readers, watchers and listeners that the story is simply more left wing rhetoric that should be ignored...

...and it has been ignored and for far too long. The future of our country and society hangs in the balance today. If we continue to wring our hands and do nothing that future is bleak indeed. Instead we should be taking part in the many demonstrations and protests taking place across the country. Since the exploitation began months ago in Wisconsin and spread like a Republican fueled wildfire across the Midwest, thousands have been speaking out, protesting, demonstrating and fighting for worker's rights, defending voter rights, fighting to stop defunding or our education and similar issues.

Collectively we must come together and for once present a united front against these attacks and the war itself. Join us in Protesting ALEC in August in New Orleans. If you can't come, donate to the effort. You can join or donate here: http://protestalec.org/. You can also join the Brave New Foundation in their efforts of exposing the Koch influence, opposing prison privatization and incarcerating immigrants for profits by Geo and CCA.

Please take a few seconds and sign my petition that will be sent to your state legislative members and Governor, asking that ALEC legislation be identified and their state members exposed.

I'll be in New Orleans in August and hope to see some of you there joining arms with us in this ongoing war against the middle class. If our President continues to capitulate to the demands of the minority over the needs and demands of the middle class, we must stand up and speak out for ourselves and our neighbors...just sayin'...

Democracy Stands Up to ALEC and the theft of America by Kochroaches in Cincy!

As most know, many Kossacks traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio this past week to attend the first ever Anti-American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Protest there at that organization's scheduled Spring Summit. The entire month in the run-up to the event and the actual event were reminiscent to me of the: Civil Rights, draft, Anti-War, government and abortion protests Americans participated in throughout the 60's and 70's across the wide expanses of America. Those were important times and necessary demonstrations in the history of our country. Those who participated nearly a half century ago were trying and succeeding to some extent in changing the course of the U.S. on many matters. As in earlier times when those fighting for fair wages and treatment by employers, the turmoil of the 60's and 70's spilled blood, but in time we prevailed.

This week in Cincy was a reminder to everyone there and even the passers-by, that Democracy is once again under attack and involvement is desperately needed to alter the course our country is being taken - through corporatocracy and corruption driven by greed. The generation of today - those now entrusted with the future of themselves, their children and those rights many of us fought for in the past - has taken the helm and begun to attempt to change the course we've been put upon by corporate interests.


We really are standing perched upon a precipice, collectively as a society and more importantly, as Americans. A terrible void is at our backs and from the front we're being pressured from all points, a steady - and until Friday - unresisted force against our democratic way of life as Americans. Though this force is multi-faceted and comes from different directions, applied by what appears to be groups, organizations, PAC's, think tanks and corporations - these are not attacks by totally independent entities who individually oppose Progressive views. No, this is all coordinated by the power, influence and financing of Charles and David Koch.

Using money generously provided them from the ultra-rich Koch "Monopoly", Right Wing Think Tanks, PAC's, 527's and Conservative groups (Mackinac Center, American Enterprise Institute, American Life League, The Cato Institute, The Heritage Foundation and dozens of other groups and organizations found here) are the ones applying this force pushing us toward the abyss. I accurately and without equivocation call this all a Koch Monopoly - not because they own so much of America's wealth now...or because they have managed to monopolize one particular industry, product or company. No I call them this because today they have a genuine monopoly upon nearly all U.S.legislation proposed and beneficial to corporations, business and of interest to conservatives. Legislation that once enacted further weakens us and enriches the corporations.

What only a handful of us know and understand, is that even if the lawmakers within ALEC come up with legislation they wish to propose in their states that will benefit their constituents - they are prohibited from proposing or introducing that legislation in their state General Assemblies unless the legislation is approved by the Corporate members of the task force or any committee! Really, this is how ALEC works...

"ALEC's task forces craft the organization's public-policy agenda,its "model" legislation and issue positions. On each task force, the private-sector representatives have an equal vote with the state legislators'and effective veto power over the task force's activities and legislative recommendations. Nothing can move out of the task force without agreement from its private-sector representatives."

Because of this single but controlling provision, no laws discussed or supported by any ALEC lawmaker can ever become law anywhere in the U.S. unless the Corporate membership gives their blessing. Think about this aspect for just a moment and consider that by their own admission; ALEC's legislative membership is compromised by 2,400 state lawmakers - fully 1/3 of the total number of duly elected state Senate and Congressional members in this country. Indeed, the state legislators who attend ALEC meetings are joined by the platoons of lobbyists, corporate executives, and representatives of assorted trade and professional associations who pay to have these 2,400 lawmakers as their captive audience...and are prohibited from proposing anything that is not authorized by these corporate interests. To me this indicates that through ALEC, no legislation beneficial to the public will ever reach state assemblies unless it benefits the corporations in some form or manner. Also it means that certain legislation proposed by the corporate arm of ALEC to purportedly protect the public and has become actual state laws, were enacted to enrich the corporate members of ALEC:

"For ALEC's corporate sponsors, "a seat at the table" "on one or more of its "task forces" is the ideal mechanism for pushing "model" legislation favorable to their interests. Consider, as just one example, ALEC's recent work in the criminaljustice arena. "ALEC developed model criminal justice policies that kept criminals off of our streets for longer periods of time,"one of its recent publications notes, "and allowed private industry to use its expertise to help states meet their growing incarceration needs." The publication goes on to point out that twenty-eight states have authorized the use of private prisons to house inmates. Is it any surprise that ALEC's Task Force on Criminal Justice has been cochaired by a representative of Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest operator of private prisons?

Another active private-sector participant in ALEC's Task Force on Criminal Justice is the National Association of Bail Insurance Companies, whose membership consists of the ten companies that write the great majority of court-appearance bonds in the United States. In a recent brochure, the association touts "the ALEC connection" as "an essential ingredient" of NABIC's legislative strategy."

This alone generates a lot of income from CCA and Geo Group for ALEC. The old "one hand washes the other", syndrome.

The money and influence guiding each of the cold fingers prodding us toward the precipice I mentioned above, is primarily coming from the Koch family and their Family Foundations through a core group that coordinates them all - the American Legislative Exchange Council Koch money funds everything and Koch influence and real power is exerted through their membership in ALEC and their position upon ALEC's Private Enterprise Board and more than one of the nine (9) ALEC Task Forces.

If I was comfortable in how to produce charts I would have one with Koch Industries at the top and below that: Charles Koch Foundation, the David Koch Foundation, the Koch Family Foundation (that includes the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation). Below these I'd have a list of "Influenced by the above" with lines running to; the Heritage Foundation, Reason Foundation, American's for Prosperity, Club for Growth, Cato Institute, Castle Rock Foundation, Eagle Forum, Mercatus Center, Institute for Humane Studies, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Institute for Justice, Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, Institute for Energy Research, Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment, The Manhattan Institute, the George C. Marshall Institute, American Enterprise Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy and...I could go on but I'd run out of space to fit the little boxes in.

From there I'd run lines through Mainstream media and Fox News, through to the American Legislative Exchange Council. Under ALEC would be lines to the Nine Task Forces and from those would be lines to the top 350 U.S. Corporations on one side and to 2400 Conservative state Lawmakers on the other. From the Corporations and State lawmaker boxes the lines would move inward to a single box that reads "Legislation in the 50 United States of America"...or to be more factual and realistic, the final box would be labeled: "How the Koch brothers Intend to Rule the U.S."

But, like I said I have no proficiency for charts and graphs, so I'll leave that up to a bright University student or grad to accept as a challenge. He or she will no doubt create it in a few moments and post it so all could see graphically what is perhaps today, the worst thing that has ever happened to the U.S. population - from within.

While we are distracted by the marital plans of the British Royalty, and the question of our President's place of birth, covered 24/7 by the mainstream media, ALEC members - certainly including those representing the Koch's interests - hoped to quietly meet in Cincinnati to plan their legislative agenda for 2011. There in the Hilton Hotel they hoped to decide which laws and issues they will present to the entire membership and propose implementing to the individual state legislatures over the next several months. These are laws and legislation intended to be put into place that we, as a society will be told to abide by (properly sanctioned and blessed by the corporate arm of ALEC). They anticipated that as in years past, this would all be done quietly, in secret with no one knowing that those laws would have been written, developed and worded by ALEC - and ALEC alone. We were not to know that those laws were created with specific input from the corporations and owners of those companies so that they could acquire more profits and influence - or a greater market share in their particular fields. This was their intention...

...We, however had an entirely different agenda; to expose their corrupt methods of implementing laws upon Americans that are written and funded by their corporate masters and lobbyists! We few Americans decided enough is enough already. We'd become tired of funding cuts to education, healthcare, necessary and critical social programs, environmental programs and deregulation of all things governmental to keep corporations in check.

Once word got out in Ohio about the choice of Cincy as the Spring Summit location for ALEC's meeting, the students of Ohio, Indiana, Louisiana and other states put together a protest, rally and educational "Teach-Ins." (As an aside, and a proud one, this protest suggestion was proposed and started right here on D Kos)! The purpose of the protest was to awaken more Americans to the pursuits of Koch funded and influenced legislation that would; allow more arrests; increase incarceration and long sentences served in prison where the prisoners would serve as a slave workforce for those corporations affiliated with or members of ALEC; cut funding for education at all grades and levels; reduce wages for public sector workers; end collective bargaining; break up Unions; repeal universal healthcare; eliminate abortion, deregulate important government programs and oversight, and; repeal child labor laws.

These young and highly motivated and intelligent "whipper-snappers" kicked ALEC and their Corporate master's collective asses - and by the looks of some of those CEO's in attendance, many of those backsides were indeed unbelievably HUGE...from living the high life and feeding freely at the trough that is constantly flowing with our tax dollars.

The seeyouincincinnati organizers made me proud to be a Progressive American. Watching them put this protest together, coordinate those to speak, crowd control, housing for those of us from out of state, garner Union supporters, secure permits and space for the protest and march...finally provided me with a sense that just maybe there was hope for us as a democratic society...that Koch and ALEC could be stopped. Oh, not immediately and just because of a grass roots campaign expertly and smoothly operated by college students and supported by a group of us old farts...no, because this protest has sounded the alarm and awakened other students and old Dems in many other states. Plans, preparations and strategy is now underway for the next round that will take place in New Orleans from August 3rd through August 6th. This time the students - fighting desperately for an education promised them by the laws and Constitution of this great nation - have become alerted to the legislation intended to deprive scholarships and state and federal funding. Their education and thus their future is in jeopardy if ALEC and the corporations prevail. They have not only become aware about the legislation, they now know the enemy. They met them face to face in Cincy at the Hilton and in Fountain Square as Corporate CEO's , corporate representatives and state lawmakers smiled, snickered and in some instances openly laughed at protesters. But as an old timer at this kind of demonstrating, I and many others looked past the smirks, laughter and smug attitude filled rhetoric. We looked into the eyes of the CEO's and lawmakers...we studied the body language as they laughed...and we saw the signs of nervousness and real unease.

During the march we found a small group of state lawmakers standing outside the Hotel, huddled in the entryway - 3 or four of them with a couple of others that appeared to be staffers. I listened attentively as one of them spoke with one of the organizers wearing a "Marshal"shirt, claiming that he and the other lawmakers standing with him were opposed to the SB 1070 styled legislation other members were pushing for in every state. He described ALEC's membership as being one of diversity and he and the others standing with him strongly opposed such discriminatory legislation. As I listened it dawned on me that what we were witnessing was not simply an attempt to dis-inform, rather it was the first signs of a tiny crack within ALEC. The lawmakers standing nervously around the one speaking (A short man, grey haired, wearing glasses with a name tag identifying him as an ALEC member, named Ralph - couldn't see his last name on the badge) were actually trying to identify with the protesters and separate themselves from the ALEC agenda - at least on the immigration initiative. They weren't trying to justify the ALEC initiatives, they were in fact declaring that at least some of the ALEC and corporate controlled and proposed legislation was wrong. They were anxious to not be included in the group supporting SB 1070.

Just as the march, protest and Teach-Ins were a first in the history of ALEC - so was this crack in the ALEC membership. Lawmakers were starting to realize with the eyes of the public looking intently at them, their political future could be in jeopardy due to membership in ALEC. Seeing this I was actually inspired that with more pressure and a larger turnout in New Orleans later this year, we can create more cracks and widen smaller ones that could develop between now and then due to the document dump many are speaking about.

Wisconsin, Indiana, Maine, Florida, Ohio and many other states are on the ropes financially right now. They are cutting everything beneficial to the public and to workers as they fight to continue funding massive incarceration and the prison industry program that serves as a cash cow to the companies using that labor. Profit from the slave labor is then reinvested in lobbying and campaign contributions to keep the Conservative agenda alive and well, funding even more beneficial corporate initiatives.

I think the cabal is beginning to waiver slightly due to the Protest and confrontations that took place on the 29th. In New Orleans in August we hope to drive a solid, heavy wedge into those cracks, over and over until the whole begins to crumble. It won't happen all at once, but I'm confident that another round or two and some lawmakers will begin to drop their memberships to ALEC. I think others will find that when legislation is proposed by corporate interests that would anger the public, they will be less willing to simply sign on and go along. 'Course, as DM used to proclaim, "That's just my opinion, and I could be wrong..."

Below I've posted some pictures we took at the Protest Friday.

An important message indeed. Some may think this protester missed breakfast before attending, but I think he wants to take a bite out of ALEC...



Protest organizers found my wife, Jean and I a place to stay the night before the Rally. We stayed with Flequer Vera (I hope I've spelled his name correctly):



Jean and Flequer in front of the Fountain in Cincy:



Here's the wife and I holding a sign that we think says it all:

"

Prepping for the Teach-In the night before the Rally. Of course I got caught chewing on a scone when the pic was taken:



Some Kabuki(?) and Organizer staff signing Petitions against SB 5 in Ohio at the Rally:



Bad picture of a SEIU Union member and sign at the Rally. Several Unions were present and active in protesting several anti-Union and worker legislation initiatives there in Ohio:



One of the Protest organizers speaking to the crowd of a couple of hundred protesters:

Another shot of the crowd with a Union member in the foreground:



My video camera malfunctioned and all of the footage I took of the Protest, Rally and March was not captured. This is why I only have the stills the wife and I took during the event. Wish I had more, but I've seen dozens of others posted in several diaries, so the event was covered from all angles.

My greatest thanks to all the students, grads and others who organized, showed up and took part in the march and more importantly attended the Teach-Ins to find a common purpose and the tools necessary to wage this war against education and American workers. I would have given this praise and written a diary sooner than Sunday night, but I have been inundated with calls, emails and faxes requesting more information, interviews and requests for appearances - all this from the opportunities provided by the SeeyouinCincinnati organizers, students and neighborhood associations and groups that made the spreading of the word and networking really work...

...because of your efforts I am thankful and emboldened to do even more. To Aliya, Ben, Alan and others whose name I unfortunately have forgotten or didn't get in the first place (I've gotten old and remembering names is harder than understanding encryption), congratulations and a heartfelt thanks. If you read this count us in for New Orleans. We wouldn't miss that opportunity, even if Koch gets ALEC to propose legislation making NO off limits to Progressives! I'll just put on my red hat in August and go as a faux Conservative. I'll just have to keep my big mouth shut most of the time :)

INSOURCING - Fighting for reform - can cost you your job.

Bob Sloan (C)2010

Fri Dec 3, 2010

For those visitors who may have missed my Corporatocracy series involving corporations, private prisons and prison labor, below are links to the series.

Corporatocracy
Corporatocracy-II
Corporatocracy-III
Corporatocracy-IV
Corporatocracy-V
Corporatocracy-Conclusion

Bob Sloan's diary :: ::
From 2003 through 2006 the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) was suffering from a severe case of corruption. James Crosby, former Warden at Florida State Prison (FSP-Death Row) had been chosen by Governor Jeb Bush in January 2003 to serve as the new Secretary of the FDOC (a Cabinet poistion). He replaced Michael Moore (no relation) who was leaving under a cloud of controversy and allegations of corruption. The Secretary's position included a permanent seat upon the Prison Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified Enterprises (PRIDE) Board.

There were many other choices for the Governor to pick from, but he knew Crosby. During both elections where Bush prevailed, Crosby had been a loyal supporter. He held or sponsored many meetings, dinners, parties and fund raisers for his friend Jeb. In addition to Crosby's support, Bush also had the support of another FDOC employee - A.C. Clark. Later Crosby and Clark were often referred to within the FDOC as heads of the "Good Ol' Boy's Club" or collectively, "The Big Boys".

Together Clark and Crosby twisted arms, threatened loss of prime shifts or overtime in efforts to "get out the vote" for Jeb and suggest others within the FDOC make "contributions" to Bush's campaign. In both instances a lot of support and money was garnered from among FDOC staff (22,000+) in support of Jeb Bush. Later many of those FDOC employees voiced complaints that their attendance at fund raisers, contributions and votes were coerced by Clark and Crosby through fear of losing jobs, having their shifts changed or being transferred from one institution to another, if they did not do as "suggested" by the Good Ol' Boys.

So Crosby's selection to head the state's entire Department of Corrections appears to have been based - at least in part - as a reward to Crosby for his political activities related to both Bush campaigns in Florida. Of course Crosby was only too happy to carry A.C. Clark along with him - from within the ranks of FDOC to the very top rung of the department's ladder.

As Governor, Bush later appointed A.C. Clark to the 8th Circuit Judicial Nominations Committee (JNC Appointment). Later, Bush would be unable to recall why he appointed Clark to a four year term on the Committee in response to questions as to why he would appoint a high school drop-out to such a position.

Clark had been with FDOC for years - as had Crosby - and worked at several institutions. During his tenure with DOC he made rank, only to lose it on more than one occasion. Once Crosby took office as Secretary, Clark quickly rose from Sergeant...to Major...then Colonel...to Assistant Warden...to FDOC Regional I Director (NW Florida). He rose through all those ranks from 2003 to 2006. Other "pals" of Crosby and Clark were also promoted over others with more time and rank. Clark was provided a huge home (described as a "Mansion") located on prison property and owned by the State of Florida.

Together Crosby and Clark raised hell in and around Tallahassee, within the FDOC and community. They threw lavish parties and orgies for FDOC officials and politicians on DOC property. Some turned into brawls, with attendees throwing punches at one another. When the media would try to follow up on the rumors they heard, most kept quiet, referring all to interview Crosby. He tried to keep it out of the media but was unsuccessful and several FDOC staff were arrested for the bar fights.

Crosby recruited semi-pro ball players to play for the FDOC softball team. They were hired to work as prison staff, worked no shifts but received paychecks like the rest, for playing ball.

A steroid ring was begun among staff working in the DOC. The tendrils of the drug ring ran from North Florida across the state to many institutions and originated in Egypt.

Clark was at the center of many rumors: that he used money out of an FDOC recycling fund to open a limousine service, that he was strong-arming other staff members to cover his shifts with threats of termination, covering-up

In mid-November, 2005 Crosby had to address the poor behavior of his men and women staff:

"Effective in mid November, Crosby told his top staff to begin spreading the word that employees arrested for an "act of aggression" would automatically be placed on leave while the department investigates the arrest. Crosby also told reporters in mid-November that additional policy changes will be issued soon that will cover other areas of employee misconduct on and off the job."

Crosby should have taken his own words to heart. He didn't know it then, but he and the others were already under intense FDLE and F.B.I. joint investigations for corruption, taking kickbacks and embezzling funds from the recycling program and misuse of inmate labor. It was later learned that the investigations were begun in 2003.

It is inconceivable that anyone committing such rampant corruption and abuses of power was without knowledge of the corruption ongoing within PRIDE, when he held a seat on the Board. He ignored all of the information I and others provided him with about PRIDE's state and federal violations, complaints of the formation of the spin-offs used for money laundering, wages and reduced wages of inmates, that also reduced the money taken in by the FDOC for room and board deductions from those wages. He ignored all of our requests and complaints...yet in 2005 when the IG's Audit on PRIDE was released, Crosby publicly stated that from the time he became Secretary and became a member of PRIDE's Board, he had reservations about the business practices, formation of the spin-offs and accounting procedures employed by PRIDE. He further alleged that he brought all of that to the attention of the Governor and Legislators. He knew how to "spin" the facts, for sure.

Throughout the scandals, investigations and a multitude of calls for Governor Bush to fire Crosby, he refused and instead had Crosby's back right up until February 2006. The formal investigations involving all of the corruption in FDOC were completed after the first of the year and A.C. Clark was arrested and Bush could no longer keep the lid on and ordered Crosby to Resign.

On February 10, 2006 Governor Bush appointed James R. McDonough as interim Secretary to replace Crosby. McDonough had been with Bush's Administration for the full length of his Governorship, serving as director of the Governor's Office of Drug Control. McDonough is a West Point Graduate, Author of "Platoon Leader" - later made into a popular film - and served proudly in the military, serving last in the European theater where he wrote the manuals on strategy and tactics that are still in use today.

McDonough took over with Bush's instructions to weed out the corruption and reform the prison system. He accepted his orders and went to work as always. Within weeks of taking over, McDonough fired many top officials, demoted those who had been promoted due to crony-ism and promoted those who had the skills to perform the duties assigned and had been passed over under Crosby and Moore. He charged department staff to remember their oaths and abide by them in dealing with other staff and inmates.

McDonough made a lot of enemies in his reform efforts. Most of those were the remainder of the "Good Ol' Boys" who had survived but were keeping their heads down.

I contacted Secretary McDonough shortly after he became Interim-Secretary, providing him with documents and information alleging corruption and violations of the PIECP program within PRIDE. I advised that I had provided the information previously to Secretary Crosby, to no avail. He refused to look into or investigate the allegations - even as a Board Member. Secretary McDonough replied immediately, asking if I was sure of my allegations, did I have documentation in support and did I have any suggestions on how the prison industries should be run by PRIDE, knowing what their Mission Goals were: training and job placement of inmates?

In response I forwarded several confidential documents outlining the corruption and efforts that had been made by myself and a prison advocacy group I belong to: (Little Ol' Ladies In Tennis Shoes - Florida LOLITS) and Kay Lee of Making The Walls Transparent (MTWT) to bring corruption in FDOC and PRIDE to the attention of Governor Bush and the media. I also included an independent plan for the revamping of PRIDE that would return the corporation to the Mission Goals. I advised that the Board had to be replaced with members appointed from both the commercial corporate and public activist arena's.

McDonough responded that he appreciated the input and documents and that he had ordered an investigation to be conducted by the department's IG and as soon as the report was completed he would provide a copy. As I awaited the report, I asked the Secretary if he planned on being at the upcoming (April 2006) PRIDE Board meeting and would I be allowed to attend? He promptly replied that yes, he intended to be there and as a member of the public I could attend.

I made the meeting, flying down from Indiana. Secretary McDonough could not make it to the meeting as he was in the midst of several near crises within the FDOC, but his General Counsel did attend. She spoke on his behalf and asked if I was present. Finding me there, she advised the Board that Secretary McDonough asked that the Board allow me to make a presentation to the Board as I had several grave concerns as to the PIECP program and PRIDE's business operations an practices in that program and those same concerns were mirrored by Secretary McDonough.

At the conclusion, I was given the courtesy of giving a presentation. I raised the issues of underpaid wages, use of inventoried products to fill PIECP orders, the contaminated foods coming out of their food processing plant, ethics violations by PRIDE President Edgemon and his son-in-law also working for PRIDE at the food processing plant involving the theft of ATL's equipment and materials and the formation of two for-profit corporations by his son-in-law that took the place of ATL's contracts and profits.

In addition I spoke to the use of inmates in the training program who were serving life or other sentences in excess of 20 years - voicing concerns of safety to both staff and inmates (allowing those inmates access to dangerous tools) and issues of avoiding overtime by adjusting inmate hours by removing some hours from one pay period and putting them on subsequent periods and the sale of prison made goods upon open markets without paying any PIE wages at all.

The Board thanked me and advised they would address my concerns and answer the questions at the next meeting in July. However, the Board was not aware of the situation involving ATL and the food processing facility and wanted Edgemon to explain the circumstances. Edgemon declined, stating that they were currently in litigation with ATL and he was unable to speak to the issues until the litigation was completed.

I attended the July meeting also and the Board had their internal auditor present to give a report on PIECP and how it was operated by PRIDE. In that presentation she stated that PRIDE had been reviewed numerous times by the NCIA and had been found in compliance. In answer to the wages paid to inmates, she answered that currently "all inmates working on PIECP orders/projects are paid the Florida minimum wage of $6.40 per hour." Again, she reiterated that under PIECP law, that was sufficient to meet the wage requirements of 18 USC 1761(c)(2).

I was allowed to respond to her presentation and again, pointed out that upon their website they claim to pay inmates "prevailing wages" as required by the law:

"The PIE Certification Program was created by Congress in 1979 to encourage states and units of local government to establish employment opportunities for prisoners that approximate private sector work opportunities. The program is designed to place inmates in a realistic working environment, pay them the local prevailing wage for similar work, and enable them to acquire marketable skills to increase their potential for successful rehabilitation and meaningful employment upon release."

The Board said they would further investigate my argument and address the issues in the next meeting in November. I attended that one also and PRIDE's "PIE Coordinator, Brian Connet was brought in and gave a presentation on PIECP. He gave a glowing number of statistics alleging that their training program through PIECP was turning recidivism rates around and reported many individual success rates. He again, mentioned that the inmate workers were paid minimum wage and that was in compliance with the requirements of the "1999 Final PIECP Guidelines". Mr. Connett was unable to stay and answer any questions posed by myself or the Board members. He was followed by a presentation given by Ms. Carol Tortarelli, then serving as PRIDE's Program Director for Mission Programs. She added more glowing reports to those provided by Connett about successful reentries by former offenders, but did not futher address PIECP.

At the conclusion I again gave a presentation that challenged the legality of the minimum wages paid by PRIDE when they were supposed to be paying prevailing wages - a substantial difference. The Chairman of the Board and two othr members turned to President Edgemon and asked," Jack are we in compliance on PIECP requirements by paying minimum wages?" His reply was a nod yes. When I again advised they were not only in non-compliance, but the failure to pay the proper wage rendered each product shipped across state lines a federal felony, Edgemon was asked again; "Jack are we or are we not in compliance by paying minimum wages to the workers?" His response that time was a verbal, "Yes."

(I traveled several more times to Florida to attend the meetings but was unable to convince the Board that the inmates were being cheated by paying them less than required...and by doing that, they were reducing their tax requirement of matching deductions for S.S. as employers and it also reduced the amount of room and board taken from inmate wages and turned over to the FDOC. I was talking and my words fell upon 12 sets of deaf ears).

In July 2006 Crosby and Clark both plead guilty to receiving kickbacks under an FDOC canteen contract involving Keefe Commissary Network and American Institutional Services (Earlier this year the owners of AIS were indicted, arrested and are awaiting trial for their parts in the kickback scheme. Keefe has not been mentioned after the original stories broke, and there has been no indication they will also face prosecution for their involvement in furthering the bribery scandal).

When Governor Crist took over from Bush, he kept McDonough on, citing his great work at reforming the huge FDOC.

From my initial contact with Secretary McDonough we exchanged many emails and had lunch at one of the 06 Board meetings in Orlando, discussing the issues surrounding PRIDE and their business practices. I told him I had learned that ATL was not the first private business "stolen" by PRIDE through PIECP and provided him with the names of the companies and facts as I knew them. In September 2007 the investigation he had ordered into PRIDE's operations was completed and turned over to him and McDonough resigned his position on the PRIDE Board (I didn't get a copy of that report until late 2009). In October 2009 McDonough called for Governor Crist to abolish PRIDE and return the operations of the prison industries back to the FDOC and in November he cited the fact that PRIDE 'had lost their way" in pursuing their mission goals and statement. In addition he demanded that PRIDE turn over more than $1 million deducted from inmate wages for room and board deductions, but PRIDE refused, saying state law allowed them use of those funds and McDonough countered that federal law says it rightfully belonged to his department and superseded state law.

A Senate Appropriations hearing was scheduled for January 8, 2008 to hear the proposals presented by McDonough and the FDOC on PRIDE. On January 7, 2008 James McDonough submitted an unexpected announcement that he was "retiring" from the FDOC as Secretary. I had traveled to Floria to be present at the hearing in support of the FDOC and heard the news sitting in my hotel room. I immediately emailed the Secretary and questioned if his retirement was a result of his battle over PRIDE. He stated it was his decision and the PRIDE fight had no effect upon his decision. However, since that time McDonough has been involved in several efforts to change the laws surrounding incarceration, to reduce incarceration and remove some inmates from prison and place them in facilities to address their addictions or mental problems. He has also called for sentencing alternatives to prison. So McDonough remains active in trying to change Florida's dependence upon mass incarceration and the costs in tax dollars that results in.

Throughout my conversations and communications with James McDonough he was always truthful - regardless of any personal costs to him for voicing those truths - and demonstrated a huge amount of integrity and concern. While Secretary he eliminated wasteful contracts, reduced the cost of canteen items for the inmates - state wide - and re-negotiated the inmate phone access contracts, reducing the cost of collect calls to family and friends from within the FDOC. He made many changes to professionalize the FDOC and return it to a department that was again respected - a hard task after all the corruption in the nation's third largest correctional system.

His ability to understand and realize the actions of PRIDE were violative and hampering rather than assisting a reduction in prison recidivism made him respond as he had always done, by correcting the situation and addressing the corruption that lurked within PRIDE.

Unfortunately the Governor and Legislators were willing to support McDonough's efforts of ridding the FDOC of corruption and crony-ism - but not PRIDE. When his attention turned to PRIDE (Legislator's cash cow) he had to be stopped. Inmates and most corrupt officers do not contribute to campaign funds - PRIDE and their lobbyists do - so reforming the FDOC was okay. He had been so effective at rooting out all forms of corruption within FDOC that he simply could not be allowed to pursue the same attack upon the source of most Florida politician's lobby funding through PRIDE...and in his absence corruption and huge sums of money made off of inmate labor, continues as before; growing more insidious and being exported to other states every day.

In the next segment we'll discuss the NCIA and their impact upon the violations within PIECP.

Some have asked that I provide links to the other segments in this series. Below you will find them.

INSOURCING - A new concept about private sector job losses
INSOURCING-II-The Wheel of Money and Sorrow...
INSOURCING-III - Corporate Wheel of Profit Rolls On...
INSOURCING-IV - More Profits Through Monopolies...-
INSOURCING - The Real Reason your jobs MUST go to prison and what they do with the money saved...
INSOURCING - Why this Investigative series began...
INSOURCING - Florida Corruption Exposed
INSOURCING- Violations-under-PIECP

Insourcing - Why this Investigative series began...

by Bob Sloan

Sun Nov 21, 2010 at 04:13:31 PM PST

I have been exposed to both prison and prison industry over my lifetime. I personally experienced what it's like to be falsely arrested and behind those fences and working in prison industries. Because of that I was open to questions posed by inmates working where I had once been. What I discovered is not only unbelievable, it is shocking and hard to stomach.

In 2002 I was unfortunate enough to have to return to Florida in response to an old probation case I had there in 1981. My attorney said no problem we'll go down and straighten this out and get you right back to Indiana. Well that fiasco lasted nearly two years and I was finally able to resolve the case and return to my home. I won't go into large detail on this, as it isn't important to the issues involved in this series.

What is important is that during my stay in the Florida correctional system waiting on the court to rule, I was assigned to work in the PRIDE prison industry at Union Correctional Institution. Thankfully I was only there for a brief few months before coming home, but that was enough time to be dumbfounded as to the products made, the private sector customers purchasing the products and other disquieting observances.

Bob Sloan's diary :: ::
Due to numerous requests here are links to the previous segments of Insourcing:

INSOURCING - A new concept about private sector job losses
INSOURCING-II-The Wheel of Money and Sorrow...
INSOURCING-III - Corporate Wheel of Profit Rolls On...
INSOURCING-IV - More Profits Through Monopolies...-
INSOURCING - The Real Reason your jobs MUST go to prison and what they do with the money saved...
INSOURCING - Why this Investigative series began...
INSOURCING - Florida Corruption Exposed
INSOURCING- Violations-under-PIECP

While there I began to ask questions about the industry and how they could sell prisoner made products to the public? My questions were not well received and the answers provided did nothing to dispel an uneasiness about the legality of what was going on.

The court finally ruled, the case ended and I was released and sent home. I immediately filed a civil case in Indiana's federal court for my false arrest (outdated and expired warrant) in '02 here in Indy on the Florida case. Due to the legal mix-up I had lost two businesses and we were out more than $35,000.00 in attorney fees - not to mention two years of my life wasted on a "mistake".

In mid 2004 while I was in the midst of litigating the false arrest case, I received letters from some of the inmates working in the PRIDE industry where I had briefly been. They were posing questions about the prison industry's PIE program. They were still being worked to manufacture goods for the private sector under the program and asked what the program was, knowing I had asked these same questions when I was among them. They also wanted to know if their work was legal and if it affected work on the outside.

These were good questions and as a prison rights activist (yes, I was that before and after my trip back to Florida), I began to research this PIE program and found it is actually the Prison Industries Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP) run by the federal government. That was easy enough to find out.

I discovered the program was run by the Bureau of Justice Assistance from within the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs. I copied down the contact information for the Bureau of Justice Assistance and sent off a cursory email, asking about the particulars of the program and information on products manufactured and possible impact upon private sector jobs. In response I got a brief email answer advising me that I would have to contact the National Correctional Industries Association (NCIA) for information on the program.

The foregoing response left me scratching my head, wondering why I needed to contact a non-profit corporation for information on a government run program. Once I'd become nearly bald - from the scratching - I sent off a similar request to the NCIA. At the same time I visited the website operated by the NCIA and tracked down the actual PIECP program Overview and read it. That left me with more questions so I read the entire 1999 Final PIECP Guidelines and finally downloaded it to try and understand it. The formatting was all screwed up and it was difficult to determine where one topic ended and another began.

More confused by my reading and lack of comprehension about this PIECP I made copies of the guidelines and sent them to the prisoners who had contacted me. I explained what I knew about the program and that the information they had related to me in their letters was not exactly the way the program read. I asked them to provide more information and I'd find the time to look into it.

The next letter I got from these inmates in Floria advised that they had been "caught" in possession of the PIECP Guidelines by industry supervisors. Two of them were terminated for possession of contraband and a third had been suspended without pay for a week. The guidelines I'd sent were confiscated and destroyed.

Then I was really confused trying to understand how a federal program guideline used to work inmates could be considered "contraband" by prison authorities when found in possession of the workers. I contacted Florida authorities and was informed contraband was just about any item not issued by the state or on an approved list of items inmates were allowed to have in their possession.

I contacted PRIDE headquarters in Clearwater, Florida and asked them about the program. Again I was referred to the NCIA for answers to my questions. Okay, I was starting to get really uneasy as well as peeved at the difficulty I was having just getting reasonable questions answered.

Before contacting the NCIA a second time, I sat down and read the PIECP guidelines through and through - three times. From what I could determine there were nine mandatory criteria that had to be met prior to the start-up of any prison industry program. The state department of Corrections had to apply for "certification" in the program to participate and one factor that jumped off the page was the requirement that any inmate working for a prison industry under PIECP must be paid the prevailing wage for his/her labor! Okay...that was just not happening in PRIDE's industries. So I had a valid question of non-compliance. My wife and I both contacted the NCIA and explained that our reading of the document provided at their site informed that inmates in the program were to be paid the prevailing wage for their work. We explained that this was not happening in Florida and asked them to initiate a review of the program's operation in that state.

We received immediate and short responses. We were informed that a completed review of PRIDE's industries by the NCIA was performed in 2004 and they were in full compliance and paying the inmates the proper wage.

Before I could study on this disparity between the "official" finding and what I knew was going on - having been there for a brief period of time and seeing it first hand, I received a phone call from a businessman in Atlanta, Georgia. He had read some of the articles my wife had published about PRIDE on one of the activist sites and wanted to talk to her about a situation he was involved in with PRIDE. She turned the phone over to me and from that moment on, my life was completely changed - as well as all my preconceived knowledge about corporations and the U.S. prison situation in Toto.

The man who called me was the owner of a food processing business in Atlanta (ATL Industries). He had been approached by PRIDE marketing personnel in 2001 and informed he could double or triple his profits by partnering with PRIDE under the PIECP program and using inmate labor and PRIDE's facilities to process his bulk meat products. As a business owner, the prospect of increasing profits so substantially attracted ATL to further discuss the use of inmates in food processing. ATL was told that using inmates was legal under the PIECP laws and to participate they needed to transfer all of ATL's equipment to the Florida Food Industry location in Raiford, Florida. They would be required to provide the raw bulk meats, recipes, procedures and provide personnel to train the inmates and prison industry staff on the proper preparation and disclose company proprietary technology to PRIDE so the finished products would remain the same as those previously made in the private sector. In addition PRIDE needed a complete list of ATL's customers for purposes of shipping the finished goods.

PRIDE negotiated and in 2002 ATL moved all of their equipment to Florida and began operations under a contract with PRIDE. There were minor problems from the beginning, but that's to be expected when new partnerships were getting off the ground. ATL provided a supervisor to oversee the operations in Florida and for a while business progressed smoothly. ATL's gross sales of goods was approximately $20 million annually during this period.

After two years of the three year contract, ATL discovered several bookkeeping discrepancies and when they approached PRIDE about the matter, asking for an independent audit, ATL was thrown off the industry and prison property. PRIDE filed suit against ATLand claimed theyowed them money.

PRIDE seized all ATL equipment to offset their claim of money owed, they hired ATL's onsite supervisor away from ATL and continued to manufacture their products under ATL label and sold them to ATL's customer and client list as if the business was operating normally.

Trying to keep ATL open and liquid, the owner paid what amounted to extortion to get some of ATL's products released. At the same time he offered to post a non-refundable surety bond to guarantee PRIDE that if they were correct and ATL owed them money, they would get it. In the meantime he wanted his products to continue being made and shipped. PRIDE took the money he sent, refused to allow an audit or to accept the surety bond and instead went after the owner personally.

PRIDE's President, Jack Edgemon's son-in-law was involved with the food processing facility and once ATL was refused entry to the plant, he financed the formation of two for-profit corporations in Florida and picked the former ATL supervisor to head them both as President. The companies took the place of ATL and continued to operate and realize the profits that should have gone to ATL under the existing contract. They used the materials, raw bulk meats, packing and dry ingredients as well as the equipment belonging to ATL and kept the profits made.

I became aware of this in 2004 and went to work researching the situation, reading some of the court files available (PRIDE had secured a "gag order" in the civil case, so much of the information was unavailable.

In 2005 my research revealed that ATL was not the first private sector company to be taken over by PRIDE in the same manner. There was Fresh Nectar (a company partnered with PRIDE to process and ship citrus and fruit juices and citrus products), Man-Trans, llc (a company that refurbished transmissions and engines), Custom Converter Sales, Inc. (CCA refurbished transmission torque converters) and a second company that was also owned by the CCS, Valueline Converter, Inc. In each case PRIDE had done the same thing; partnered with the companies, requiring them to provide all of their equipment, stock, materials and unfinished products and technology to PRIDE and relocate behind prison fences. Once this was accomplished, within months PRIDE would throw the company owners off the property and instruct FDOC to not allow them back onto prison property, keeping the equipment, materials unfinished and finished products. PRIDE then continued the operations, selling the products to the customers of the private partners. PRIDE's attorney then filed suit alleging money owed and tied the companies up in court until the owners ran out of money to fight the legal battle (they all had no way of generating income as PRIDE had all of their equipment and stock).

I advised ATL and their attorney of the other companies and sent them documents demonstrating that this appeared to be a normal business practice of PRIDE.

During this same period 2004-2005, PRIDE came under investigation by the Florida Governor's IG office. The state wanted to audit PRIDE's books and PRIDE refused, arguing that as a private corporation they had no duty to open their books. After a long battle PRIDE was forced to allow the audit and in 2005 the IG issued a report that was scathing (Audit #2004-4). PRIDE had created nine illegal spin-off companies that was owned and operated by PRIDE Board members and/or PRIDE's CEO, Pam Davis, CFO Robert Smith or family members of the Board members. Money from these spin-offs was being dumped into a single account mixed in with the non-profit income of PRIDE. PRIDE's Board met and passed resolutions to loan these spin-offs as much as $37 million dollars (to themselves, really) with no loan repayment schedule or clauses. They then went to their spin-offs and received the money and paid themselves huge salaries, bonuses and in general used the money as they saw fit.

PRIDE then handed out no bid contracts to the spin-offs to do PRIDE's work and issued huge checks to the corporations for the "work". In the end, the CEO, President and several other PRIDE personnel were forced to resign their positions. The state of Florida did not pursue criminal action or inform the IRS of the manipulations by a registered 501 (C)(3) exempt corporation. PRIDE was forced to sever all ties to the spin-offs and reclaim the money paid out to those spin-offs. Of course, the money was gone, spent or otherwise dispersed prior to the report being issued. In the end PRIDE was able to recover less than $500K of the multi-millions it had loaned out.

In the next segment Friday, I will include links to the previous series and segments that preceded this one and will conclude the PRIDE saga and turn to the multiple violations occurring under PIECP and how the program participants are so easily able to take our jobs - and get away with it.

Happy Thanksgiving to all Americans. Enjoy your Holiday and I would ask that you add a little something in your saying of grace this year to include those who are away from friends and family overseas in our military - and sitting behind bars making the equipment the military uses. Thanks