Examine Military and Prison Spending In Light of George Floyd’s Killing

By JASON SIBERT

The killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minn. put the issue of police interaction with civilians in the headlines.

Millions poured out into the streets in our country and all around the world. The handling of the unrest by President Donald Trump was met with opposition – even by a former member of his cabinet. Former Defense Secretary James Mattis said Trump’s leadership divided our country. Former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen opposed Trump’s suggestion that federal troops should be deployed to control demonstrations.

Former Navy Admiral William McRaven said that the Trump Administration’s using of law enforcement and the military to clear peaceful demonstrators from Lafayette Park was unnecessary.

Media reports have revealed that peaceful demonstrators have been assaulted by police forces and reporters have been assaulted and arrested for no reason. As this story is being written, legislation is being introduced to reform police practices. Some are suggesting the banning of chock holds. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) suggested reforms such as nationwide legalization of marijuana and clemency for non-violent drug offenders.

The underlying theme of our current situation is what has been termed the prison-industrial complex, which is like the military-industrial complex, as it uses money and power to mold our definition of security.

The big question our country must ask itself is whether or not we will let the people control security or will the money power behind the military-industrial complex and prison-industrial complex control security?

Writer Eric Schlossler spoke of the prison-industrial complex in a 1998 story. He defined it as a set of institutions but also a state of mind. Schlossler said “the lure of big money is corrupting the nation’s criminal justice system. The eagerness of elected officials to pass tough-on-crime legislation – combined with the unwillingness to disclose the external and social costs of these laws – has encouraged all sorts of financial improprieties.” He also defined the prison-industrial complex as “a set of bureaucratic, political, and economic interests that encourage increased spending on imprisonment, regardless of the actual need.”

Prison labor is a part of the prison-industrial complex. Companies such as Intel, McDonalds, Boeing, Nordstroms, and Walmart contract with prisons for labor that rarely costs more than 40 cents an hour! Also, prison contract labor carries no costs when it comes to Social Security and Medicare taxes, the unemployment insurance system, or workman’s compensation systems. Companies that use prison labor have an interest in making our prison population larger.

There has also been a trend of privatizing prisons over the years. Private companies tend to build bigger prisons, and this leads to an economic economy of scale where it makes more sense to build more prisons. It also gives private prisons an incentive to lobby politicians to jail more citizens, most of them non-violent offenders. Police unions also have an economic interest in passing laws to jail more and more citizens.

The job of public safety organs is to keep us safe from the violent members of society and most of those in prison are non-violent offenders. Efforts to incarcerate fewer and fewer non-violent offenders are a part of the solution. An effort of outlaw prison labor, which should draw the attention of labor union leaders, would also be very honorable. More money to rehabilitate non-violent offenders – through something like community service - would be another fight.

A revolution in consciousness when in comes to national security – or trimming the influence of the military-industrial complex - would free up money for rehabilitation and so many other things – infrastructure, aid to communities for basic services, education, and expanding the Affordable Care Act. The military-industrial complex includes defense contractors, who profit from making obsolete and unnecessary weapons, politicians who take money from these contractors, and communities who are dependent on military bases and weapons manufacturing.

Some of the money currently used on obsolete bases and weapons can be used in what’s termed soft-power by foreign policy specialists – diplomacy, foreign aid, and the messaging the values of democracy and freedom to countries where those things are not the norm. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) made both the military-industrial complex and the prison-industrial complex a part of his campaign. To improve the functioning of our democratic-republic, there needs to be a movement, perhaps coming out of the Sanders campaign, to take on the power structure behind both!

Jason Sibert is executive director of the Peace Economy Project in St. Louis. Email jasonsibert@hotmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, August 15, 2020

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