Louisiana ends privatized juvenile prisons, but attack on 
oppressed nation youth continues

The State of Louisiana agreed to make superficial changes in its 
juvenile prison system on September 7 to settle various pending 
lawsuits.(1) The lawsuits, including one launched by the U.S. so-
called Department of Justice, stated that youth in Louisiana's 
prison system had been brutalized and denied basic needs like 
medical and dental care, food and clothing. The State of 
Louisiana, as well as other plaintiffs, are satisfied to attribute 
the brutality against youth to the privatized youth facilities run 
by the Wackenhut Corrections Corporation. However, the changes, 
while temporarily good for the youth incarcerated in Louisiana, 
amount only to superficial modifications within a system bent on 
brutalizing oppressed nations -- and utilizing the fascist means 
of privatized prisons when possible.

The oppression of Amerika's internal semi-colonies is enforced by 
its prison system. Whether it is Wackenhut or a state-run facility 
or the Corrections Corporation of Amerika, the reality that 
Amerika locks up oppressed nations at a higher rate than Apartheid 
South Africa does not change. Increased arrests and incarceration 
of oppressed nation youth are not halted if privatization is 
stopped. Amerikans may not want to hear about stories of youth 
being denied food or being forced to lie in feces-covered cells, 
but they have no qualms about keeping the next generation of 
oppressed nation members behind bars.

A report, conducted by Building Blocks for Youth, an advocate 
organization, released earlier in 2000 showed that while arrests 
of white nation youth were higher, oppressed nation youth faced 
detention and more severe punishment more than white nation youth. 
For example, 15% of all youth age 10-17 are Black, but 26% of 
incarcerated youth in the same age group are Black. Once in 
custody, Black youth are "more likely than whites to be formally 
charged and jailed, and far more likely to have their cases 
referred to adult courts. The study found this difference was 
present, even when black and white youth are charged with the same 
crime. White youth were more likely than black youth to be 
sentenced to probation."(2)

Black youth are five times more likely to be detained than white 
youth, even if charged with the same crime. And incarceration 
rates for First Nation and Latino youth are 2.5 times higher than 
for white youth.(2) MIM does not want to see more white youth 
locked up, but this information demonstrates that oppressed 
nations are disproportionately imprisoned regardless of age. 
Whatever the methods of incarceration, whoever the owners of the 
prisons, the imperialist system cannot reform its prison policies 
enough to end the oppression embedded within the system.

Like the statistics of incarceration, details of material 
conditions within youth facilities mirror that of the rest of 
Amerika's prison system. The denial of basic needs for youth 
should not surprise MIM Notes readers. Bourgeois reports state 
that youth were deprived blankets, clothing, medical care, food 
etc. One report stated that a prison pig forced a 17-year old, who 
had recently had surgery and wore a colostomy bag, to lie face 
down with the pig's knee in his back. The suit filed by the U.S. 
Department of INjustice sited "the use of corporal punishment, 
excessive force, and gas grenades, chemical restraints and 
isolation"(3) 

Similar details roll into MIM's mailbox regarding the conditions 
within prisons across Amerika, however little notice is taken when 
the victims are adult prisoners. In both situations, the violence 
should be attributed to Amerika's entire political and prison 
system. The culprit is not merely one wayward cop or one private-
prison corporation. The culprit is the system that enables settler 
nation members, corporations and the government to profit 
politically and financially from increased incarceration and 
brutality.

Public statements following the settlement stated that Louisiana 
was attempting to "cut costs" in its deal with Wackenhut. Critics 
say that cutting corners in this way meant skimping on such things 
as training. It does not take training to know that humyns need 
clothing and food. Private prison contracts for youth facilities 
in Louisiana meant an $845,000 kick-back to former Governor Edwin 
Edwards.(1)

As MIM explains in depth in MIM Theory #11 (Amerikan Prisons on 
Trial), the privatization of prisons also means a decrease in 
bourgeois democracy as it exists in Amerika: "When a state 
delegates power to capital, capital is increasing its share of 
power in the system. On one hand, the melding of capital and the 
state is an aspect of fascism. When state powers are delegated to 
capital, the bourgeoisie uses those powers to increase its 
influence over the state. The democratic process is less involved. 
On the other hand, this capital-state collaboration usually acts 
on behalf of the oppressor Amerikan nation."(4)

We make clear that control of the state over these facilities will 
not ensure that the youth are treated as humyn beings. At the same 
time, we oppose the further privatization of prisons in Amerika. 
Neither are solutions in the interests of the oppressed. 
Privatization is a mechanism for the state and capital each to 
achieve their goals in cooperation. As we point out in MIM Theory 
#7, fascism involves the middle classes and the labor aristocracy, 
under bourgeois leadership, united against the proletariat. The 
Amerikan prison system, whether privatized or state-run represents 
these forces of fascism fighting oppressed nations. Reforms within 
this system or temporary over-sight as a result of publicized 
brutality just does not cut it. If you are sick of fighting each 
and every small example of Amerika's ruthless violence against the 
oppressed, only to turn around and see the same thing repeat, join 
MIM and fight for revolution to end this system in which profit 
can be made off of brutality and repression.

1. The New York Times, 8 Sep 2000

2. http://www.cnn.com/2000/LAW/04/25/juvenile.justice/

3. http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/03/30/dangerous.jail/

4. MIM Theory #11, "Amerikkkan Prisons on Trial", available from 
MIM for $6