A version of this article has been previously circulated through other sources. This version was edited for PSLweb with the author’s permission.
Incarceration is not a distant threat, but a fact of life for many in the U.S. working-class. An unprecedented portion of our society, 3.2 percent of the U.S. population is either behind bars or on parole—the highest incarceration rate in the world. This system is at its core unconstitutional, exploitative and discriminative, creating an entire culture centered on punitive solutions and imprisonment of the poor. It utilizes public revenue to generate profit for a handful of private corporations.
 The U.S. prison industry is a modern day slave system. |
A racist and reactionary institution, the U.S. prison system was designed to continue the economic and physical oppression of certain sectors of our society. According to Helia Rasti from the prison abolitionist group Critical Resistance, “When you see who’s locked up … [n]umber one are indigenous people, then after that you have African-Americans, then people from Mexico, Central and South America.”
More than nickel-and-diming
They only have to suspect you to incarcerate you. Through the pretrial system, even innocent people can find themselves oppressed by the expansive prison industrial complex, put in debt or behind bars. When suspects are arrested, they have few options to guarantee a fair trial—they must either pay bail or wait behind bars for their court date.
Bail can reach tens of thousands of dollars, placing freedom well out of reach of most working-class people. If the suspect cannot pay the full amount, they are funneled into the bail bonds industry by corrections and court staff. In this system, the person charged with a crime (or that person’s family) pay a non-refundable 10 to 15 percent of the bail to a bail bond agent who supposedly posts the rest, freeing the individual ahead of the trial.
For example, a typical bail for resisting arrest in California is $15,000. This means that if an activist is arrested, $1,500 must be paid to a bail bond agent in order to release that individual during trial. Without the money, the accused must wait behind bars for their trial, even though they are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Protesters are often charged with resisting arrest when they are attacked or targeted by the police.
$15,000 is an absurd amount, and most working-class people cannot easily come up with $1,500. Some bail bond agencies even offer student discounts and other buying incentives while putting people directly into commercial debt.
For most people charged with a crime, pretrial release is the only way that they can work to support their family and pay for legal costs, as well as have an opportunity to build a compelling defense. Those who sit in jail prior to their court date are more likely to be convicted due to insufficient resources and restricted freedoms, as well as face foreclosure, job loss, etc.
There is no clearer violation of the 6th Amendment, which guarantees a speedy trial, and the 8th Amendment, which prohibits excessive bail. According to Rasti, “pretrial incarceration is just another way to bring more public money into the prison industrial complex.”
There are currently over 500,000 people awaiting trial behind bars in dismally overcrowded jails, costing taxpayers $6 million annually, according to NPR. Defendants are subjected to this criminal pretrial system whether they are eventually found innocent or guilty. We are essentially paying for the system that hinders our own social progress: “That you can spend a few days in jail for not paying a $30 parking ticket shows how close this system is to all of us.”
Illegal internationally
As an extension of the prison-industrial complex, the major bail bond companies alone make billions every year off of increased arrest rates. Every other country in the world has made commercial bail bonds illegal (with the exception of the U.S.-supported judiciary in the Philippines), instead providing alternatives to securely release defendants. The crimes committed by the prison industrial complex and specifically the bailbonds industry, are manifold.
In theory, bail bond agents are supposed to pay the full bond if the someone jumps bail, or re-arrest the individual using bounty hunters who often employ violent means. According to NPR, though, most bail jumpers are apprehended by local law enforcement. If one remains fugitive, most bond firms only end up paying 5 percent of the forfeiture to the court, meaning that they retain a profit in either case. Bond agents owe California courts over $150 million.
But because the prison system is so expansive in the United States, and largely privatized, bondsmen still thrive like vultures. Despite that, Kentucky, Illinois, Oregon, and Wisconsin have outlawed the commercial bail bonds industry altogether. All other states must follow suit and fight the externalized impact of incarceration.
The threat of the corrupt bail bonds industry looms over the multitude. In the words of one of the most infamous names in the business, Lipstick Bail Bonds, “Remember, you don’t have to be a criminal to be arrested, so keep our number handy at all times.” There are countless videos of bail bond agents and bounty hunters in action that can be found on the internet.
Slavery in 21st century America
The first commercial bonds were issued over a hundred years ago by Pete and Tom McDonough in San Francisco. It should be noted that this founding pair was in and out of jail their entire career for charges related to bribery, corruption of law enforcement and other crimes. From its shaky inception to today’s glamorized fugitive bounty hunters on reality TV shows, profits in the bonds industry are made by any means necessary.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, bails bonds and corrections corporations continue to donate millions of dollars to push legislation and fund right-wing candidates. Big prison corporations, like the Corrections Corporation of America, are actively lobbying to extend the privatization of the prison system and end non-financial pretrial release.
This ensures that the “law” puts more people away for longer and expands the potential for the industry’s profit. As corrections are increasingly privatized, the incarceration rate skyrockets. Inmates and detained suspects usually do not make financial political contributions.
Under the guise of increasing institutional efficacy, the corrections industry and its subsidiaries have been crippling communities and bankrupting individuals by extending its punitive practices on the public dime. Rasti pointed out the damage of prison privatization: “When human services are privatized we get poorer quality and less accountability. … We’re talking about people’s lives.”
It is time to abolish the destructive and rampant prison industry in the United States and elsewhere. Many legislators believe that we need more prisons, but it is the people and not capitalist forces who must address the problem of crime at the root of our society.
Rasti fervently advocates decarceration: “Spend the funds creating jobs for people. There is a very real need to build infrastructure that benefits society. Prison is anti-infrastructure, reducing public resources.”
There are numerous documented non-exploitative solutions to the capitalist prison system. Rather than sending workers to private factory prisons, funds must be spent on job programs and other positive solutions.
