[Ppnews] Private prison scams target American Indians

[Political Prisoner News]

Profiteering from misery: Private prison scams target American Indians

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/brenda-norrell/2009/11/profiteering-misery-private-prison-scams-target-american-indians

Profiteering from misery: Alaskan Natives' private migrant prison for 
profit is disturbing trend in violation of the traditional teachings 
of Native Americans

November 2, 2009 at 11:43 am

By Brenda Norrell

TUCSON -- Native Americans say the disturbing trend of profiteering 
from foul and abusive private migrant prisons by American Indian 
Nations violates traditional teachings to honor the sacredness of 
life and all humanity.

The San Xavier District of the Tohono O'odham Nation has planned a 
migrant prison in secret for years. Recently, outcry from neighbors 
at Sahuarita, Ariz., halted the plan. However, a second site selected 
in secret is east of Three Points, Ariz. and has not been made public.


Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham who puts out water for migrants against 
the wishes of the Tohono O'odham government, is among those opposing 
the migrant prison.

"The Tohono O'odham Nation is anxious to take blood money from the 
Department of Homeland Security. Shamefully, we who were once 
oppressed are now the willing oppressors," Wilson said.

The residents of Sahuarita and city officials of the City of Green 
Valley, including the mayor, were opposed to the prison. David Garcia 
and Wilson, both Tohono O'odham, met officials at the Pima County 
Board of Supervisors meeting on May 12, 2009 and opposed the prison.

Jose Matus, Yaqui and director of the Indigenous Alliance without 
Borders/Alianza Indigena sin Fronteras, points out that many of those 
arrested by the US Border Patrol, and dying in the Sonoran Desert, 
are Indigenous Peoples from southern Mexico and Central America. They 
are desperate for food and jobs after being forced off their lands by 
multi-national corporations. An increasing number of the dead are 
Mayan women, walking with their children.

Meanwhile in Montana, the private security firm American Police Force 
is under a state Attorney General's probe, after masquerading as the 
police force in Hardin, Montana, a town with a long history of racism 
and attacks on American Indians. American Police Force is linked to 
Texas-based CorPlan Corrections, which is pitching the private prison 
to Tohono O'odham and other Indian Nations.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney was indicted in Texas for prison 
profiteering. Cheney invested in the Vanguard Group, which profits 
from private prison contractor GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut, which 
split into GEO and Wackenhut Transportation.)

The Vanguard Group reported $1.24 trillion in assets, in mutual 
funds, in 2009, with global offices, including offices in Scottsdale, 
Arizona and Valley Forge, Penn. Vanguard Group is among the top 
investors in Corrections Corporations of America, CCA, operating 
private prisons in Arizona and throughout the United States.

Wackenhut Transportation, owned by G4S, currently has a contract to 
transport detained and arrested migrants in buses at the Arizona 
border. The buses constantly flow from the border to Tucson. Aso, at 
the Arizona border, Elbit Systems, the Israeli contractor of the 
Palestine Apartheid Border, was subcontracted by the border wall 
profiteer Boeing for spy apparatus on the Arizona border.

In another twist, there's an Israeli/US border prison connection. US 
based Emerald Corrections was granted a prison contract in Israel. 
Israel's government awarded a 22year contract to a consortium of 
Africa-Israel Investments, Minrav Holdings Ltd and Emerald 
Correctional Management to finance, design, build and operate the 
country's first private prison at Be'er Sheva in 2005. Emerald 
operates the prison at San Luis, Arizona, on the US/Mexico border and 
others in Texas.

Private prisons, packed with migrants, were quickly built in Texas 
and along the Southwest border during the Bush administration. 
American Indians are imprisoned at a disproportionate rate in prisons 
and receive longer prison terms than non-Indians, according to the 
ACLU. While the abuses in private prisons continue, Cheney has not 
been prosecuted.

Already, Alaskan Natives are in the private prison profiteering 
business, according to New York Times, citing the abuses today from a 
filed complaint of a migrant detention center in New York. Mildew, 
frigid temperatures and hunger were repeated complaints.

"In vivid if flawed English, it described cramped, filthy quarters 
where dire medical needs were ignored and hungry prisoners were put 
to work for $1 a day," New York Times reported.
A subsidiary of Ahtna Inc., an Alaska Native regional corporation, 
Ahtna Technical Services Inc., operates the Varick Street Detention 
Facility with the help of a Texas subcontractor.

Ben Carnes, Choctaw prison rights activist, was surprised by the news 
of Native-run prisons. "Wow. I always thought that if the First 
Nations were in the prison industry, they would manage it as a 
positive advancement in corrections, instead of just another stinking jail."

After viewing a photo of an outdoor migrant detention center on the 
Tohono O'odham Nation, often described as "The Cage," Carnes said, 
"The people cannot keep ignoring how the US imposed tribal council 
system is operating before they end up in those dog cages!"

Read the article below from the New York Times.

Corrupt prison hustlers linked to Tohono O'odham prison:
(Link to prison hustle in Choctaw and Chickasaw lands)
<http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2009/10/corrupt-prison-hustlers-linked-to.html>http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2009/10/corrupt-prison-hustlers-linked-to.html

New York Times: Immigrant Jail Tests U.S. View of Legal Access
By NINA BERNSTEIN
New York Times
Published: November 1, 2009
A startling petition arrived at the New York City Bar Association in 
October 2008, signed by 100 men, all locked up without criminal 
charges in the middle of Manhattan.
Daniel I. Miller, a former detainee at the Varick Street center, 
complained of abuses there. "These people have no rules," he said.
In vivid if flawed English, it described cramped, filthy quarters 
where dire medical needs were ignored and hungry prisoners were put 
to work for $1 a day. Read article:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/nyregion/02detain.html?_r=1>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/nyregion/02detain.html?_r=1

Indianz.com
<http://www.indianz.com/>http://www.indianz.com/
A subsidiary of Ahtna Inc., an Alaska Native regional corporation, 
runs an unusual immigrant detention facility in New York City under a 
$79 million, three-year contract with the federal government.
Ahtna Technical Services Inc. operates the Varick Street Detention 
Facility with the help of a Texas subcontractor. The jail houses up 
to 250 adult male aliens who face deportation for various reasons.
The Obama administration cites the jail as a model for the way legal 
services are provided to detainees. But the New York City Bar 
Association says detainees are frequently denied counsel and live 
under harsh conditions.
Ahtna has about 1,200 shareholders.
Relevant Documents:
Contract with Homeland Security for the operation of the Varick 
Federal Detention Processing Facility

<http://www.ice.gov/doclib/foia/contracts/ahtnatechnicalservicesinchsceop07c00019asofp00012.pdf>http://www.ice.gov/doclib/foia/contracts/ahtnatechnicalservicesinchsceop07c00019asofp00012.pdf

ACLU: Racial profiling and prison sentences of American Indians

Indian political participation is further diminished by the 
disproportionate number of tribal members disfranchised for 
commission of criminal offenses. There is a pattern of racial 
profiling of Indians by law enforcement officers, the targeting of 
Indians for prosecution of serious crimes, and the imposition of 
lengthier prison sentences upon Indian defendants. These injustices 
result in the higher incarceration of Indians and dilute the overall 
voting strength of Indian communities. (OCt. 14, 2009)

<http://www.nativelegalupdate.com/2009/10/articles/aclu-alleges-widespread-voting-rights-problems-in-native-communities/>http://www.nativelegalupdate.com/2009/10/articles/aclu-alleges-widespread-voting-rights-problems-in-native-communities/


US Detention Facilities:
<http://www.globaldetentionproject.org/countries/americas/united-states/list-of-detention-sites.html>http://www.globaldetentionproject.org/countries/americas/united-states/list-of-detention-sites.html




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