The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

California Prisons:
Another Cash Cow for Business

Feb 21, 2011

California politicians are accusing a federal receiver who is supposed to oversee health care in the state’s prisons of overspending taxpayer money. Since 2007, the receiver’s office approved contracts worth 82 million dollars for the construction of medical facilities, which were never built. Out of that sum, 27 million dollars went to just three companies.

The office of the federal receiver was established by a 2006 court order in response to a lawsuit by prisoners.

Conditions in the state’s prisons–such as severe overcrowding and lack of sanitation–were so bad that even the courts, which certainly are no friends of prisoners these days, had to order California to do something about it. Yet, everyone agrees, those barbaric conditions still continue in California prisons.

So yes, the elected state officials are right when they imply that the appointed federal receiver did nothing to improve prison conditions, and lined the pockets of his friends instead. But these state politicians are pointing a finger at themselves too, because that’s exactly what they did before!

The only difference is what set of business interests were favored by what set of politicians.

Don’t either one of you pretend to have humanitarian concerns! Profit for your friends is the name of your game.