Slick Willie was into jazz, played a mean saxophone and looked the part of a hip musician from the Hood, or from nearby. But in reality he was a long plane ride from Black Neighborhoods.
The 1994 Crime Bill, intended to take serious criminals off the streets, (mainly Black and Latino) while greatly lowering the crime rate, but the outcome didn’t follow suit. Clinton boasted about a 25 year low in crime and 1/3 reduction in the murder rate. But according to FACTCHECK.org, the bill had a modest effect on crime rates.
The Bill known as the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement of 1994 provided billions for thousands of community police officers (COPS) and drug courts, while banning some assault weapons. The kicker was the three strikes provision, mandating life sentences for criminals convicted of a violent felony after two or more prior convictions, which included drug crimes.
The Bill provided 8 billion for prison construction especially in the south leading to mass incarceration of mainly Black criminals, some working for as low as 2 cents an hour, according to FACTCHECK.org.
With that kind of money dedicated to building prisons, contractors aided by government officials and politicians built prisons all over Mississippi and Louisiana, and profited handsomely because of prison labor, brought on by private contractors running prisons statewide.
Louisiana Prison Labor Is Expanding
Private prisons are popping up all over Northern Louisiana, as Sheriffs are making loads of money, allowing private companies to build and operate prisons that house not only locals, but prisoners from other states. The more the merrier as the sheriffs get a chunk of government funds. In 2018 Louisiana had a prison population of 33,000 and half were in private prisons.
Louisiana State Penitentiary, (AKA) Angola is named for the Plantation and Prison whence the Slaves came, and Black prisoners today are constructing buildings, roads and washing prison officials cars. They are being paid anywhere from 5 cents to 75 cents per hour. Angola Prison is in the Southern part of the state and is extremely overcrowded, so you know what that means; more prisons and money for private contractors, and don’t forget the Sheriffs share.
According to Peoples’s World Angola has been a plantation and prison for nearly 200 years. The prison was initially a plantation where the owner got rich planting cotton and later it became a prison. Most of the inmates are black people, who are getting paid next to nothing, and when released can’t find a job, because of their criminal record. It is a lose-lose situation all way round.
It is very hard to find a decent paying job in Louisiana unless it’s offshore oil & gas or become a school teacher. Black people need to unite and start their own businesses and employ their own kind, as strange as that may sound. Otherwise the migration to neighboring states like Texas will continue. If that doesn’t happen Opelousas will continue to shrink and may disappear altogether. The city lost nearly 1/3 of its citizens from 2000 to 2010 census.
Without good jobs young people will resort to crime, and once that happens they end up in Angola or private prisons, making everyone else rich. It’s a vicious cycle.
At least Bill Clinton had the guts to admit his 1994 Crime Bill was wrong and led to Mass Incarceration of mostly Black People in a 2015 speech.
Hubert Jones
hubiejones.com 