MIM Notes 191 August 1 1999 Anti-youth trend gets boost from Congress, Michigan prisons by MC12 The trend of ever greater repression of nonconforming and oppressed-nation youth continues, with new action in Congress, and the opening of a new private prison for youth in Michigan. In Congress, the House of Representatives passed a juvenile "justice" bill that would give federal prosecutors rather than judges the power to decide whether to prosecute young people as adults. The bill also "increases mandatory minimum penalties for juveniles convicted of possessing guns with the intent to take them to school or to commit a serious felony; defines a 'street gang' as having at least three persons; toughens penalties for certain gang crimes; and increases mandatory minimum penalties on adult crimes involving the distribution of firearms and drugs to minors."(1) House Resolution 1501, passed by the House and sent to the Senate for its approval, also increases reporting of juvenile crime records between local and state agencies and the FBI, including photos and fingerprints. For youth convicted in federal courts, the bill calls for increased sentences for "if the offense was both committed in connection with, or in furtherance of, the activities of a criminal street gang and the defendant was a member of the criminal street gang at the time of the offense." The subjective and political definition of gangs thus could become an even greater weapon against young people who dare to oppose the imperialist system. This is the same bill that included, under the heading "religious liberty" the right of state governments to permit schools to display the Ten Commandments in school.(2) Even if the courts end up throwing out that part of the law, its inclusion gives reactionary hypocrites a chance to say they are doing something to improve the "values" of U.$. youth. Michigan's prison for youth The private prison giant Wackenhut Corrections Corporation is opening the first private prison in Michigan in July, and its target population is young men. The prison, just north of Baldwin, Mich., will be called the Michigan Youth Correctional Facility, and was scheduled to start accepting prisoners July 19. The prison, which cost $40 million to build, is set to take in up to 450 male prisoners by the end of the year. The prisoners will be men as young as 13 who were convicted as adults and are now in other prisons in the state. When they turn 20, they are supposed to be transferred to other prisons. The Associated Press calls the prison "the linchpin to Gov. John Engler's attack on youth crime."(3) Last year, when the construction began, Engler said "This is a day I have long waited for. ... I noted [in the previous years] that it was high time to stop pampering punks who rape, murder and assault law-abiding citizens. And I called for 'adult time for adult crime.' Michigan now has one of the toughest juvenile justice systems in the nation, and this prison is another step to keep it that way," he said. Warden Luella Burke said "As prisons go, there just aren't more secure prisons" than this one. And another prison employee said: "You have to remember, these are not children who steal bicycles. These are repeat offenders. This is the last resort, the end of the road." Imperialism is proud of the fact that it writes off youth as young as 13 years old - sending them to "the end of the road" instead of even trying to improve their lives. These young people are not even to be allowed personal visits, but instead will meet with visitors through shatterproof glass, talking on a telephone.(3) Although at "the end of the road," Michigan will require the young men to earn high school diplomas in a coercive education program. If the prison is the end of the road, then the "education" is clearly just a way to keep people busy - or increase their miseducation. Private prisons are supposed to save money, and in many cases they do - but not because they are private. If they save money, it's usually because they are newer and use labor-saving surveillance and repression technologies. For example, the Wackenhut prison will cut down on prison guards by using video cameras in each cell block, with electronic controls of every cell door. "The security is amazing," Mecosta County Commissioner Wayne O'Neil said in the Associated Press story. "I had no idea they had electric sensors with alarms that go off whenever they push a button. Or sensors that monitor when and where someone touches a fence."(3) However, as supporters of the labor aristocracy prison guard unions are quick to point out, they also will save some money with lower salaries for guards. Wackenhut will pay prison guards $21,000- $23,000.(5) At state-run prisons, guards start at $25,230.(6) MIM is not impressed with the level of exploitation of these guards. Despite these slightly lower salaries, across reactionary Amerika small towns are clamoring for private prisons, which provide steady jobs and the opportunity to bust the heads of prisoners from big cities - without having to face the communities from which they come. The prison has 201 employees, and Wackenhut says 90% of them will come from the local area. Two thousand people came to a Wackenhut job fair to staff the prison.(3) The announcement for the job fair listed the available jobs and their salaries, which is revealing about the design and intentions of the prison. It listed 195 jobs, which MIM breaks down into three categories: Ą Force and coercion: 137 (70%), which includes guards and their supervisors, security specialists and the like; Ą Bureaucracy and maintenance: 31 (16%), who are clerks, equipment maintenance and so on; and Ą Supposedly helpful or rehabilitative: 27 (14%), who are teachers, the librarian, nurses, substance abuse counselors and the psychologist. We call this last category "supposedly helpful or rehabilitative" to show that even on the imperialists' terms, these positions are only one-in-seven staff members for this prison for youth as young as 13 years old. Of course, MIM knows that most prison psychologists, teachers, counselors and the like are either not willing or not able to be of much assistance to prisoners - if they are not actually trying to work against them. Thus any efforts at "rehabilitating" these young men is clearly secondary to the prison mission of disposing of them - as reflected in the statements of the governor and other officials, and the design and staffing of the prison itself. Many young people are busted for crimes that members of the oppressor-nation or adults easily get away with every day (especially drug offenses). There are other young prisoners who have committed crimes against the people or have otherwise screwed up lives and are in need of real rehabilitation: which would include genuine education, criticism-self-criticism, non-exploitative contributions to production, and of course a non- alienated place in society. These are the goals of a socialist system of reform. The imperialist prison system does not even pretend to value such genuine rehabilitation, instead writing off young people for their "crimes" (real or cooked up for political purposes). In the process, this system ruins their lives, and the lives of their families and communities. That is what we call the criminal injustice system. Notes: 1. Washington Post, June 23, 1999. 2. Bill information from the Congress web site at http://thomas.loc.gov. 3. Wednesday, June 30, 1999 Detroit News 4. Thursday, March 5, 1998 Detroit News 5. Wackenhut information from http://www.wackenhut.com/wcc/michopen.htm 6. State prison guard information from. http://www.state.mi.us/mdoc/Career/corroff1.html.