Build a Prison Close a School: 54
schools closed in Chicago (88% black), 23 closed in Philadelphia (81%
black), 26 in New York (60% black). What’s the difference between the
Democrats and Republicans ? Hundreds of teachers and school staff are
being laid off in two of the largest cities in the country — both run by
Democrats. In Chicago and Philadelphia, a total of 4,633 people,
including many teachers, will lose their jobs.
Both cities, run by Democrats, claim they are closing schools because
they need the money. Yet near both cities, money for prisons is somehow
found. In Philadelphia, Republican Governor Tom Corbett magically found $400 million for State Correctional
Institutions Phoenix I and II which will be the second most expensive
prison complex in the state’s history. But the will to build prisons
is not just a Republicans obsession.
Plenty of political energy by various Democrats, and the Obama
Administration, is going into continuing to fund federal prisons in
Illinois and Chicago. For three years straight, the Obama
Administration has requested more money for federal prisons. In this
year’s budget request, the Obama Administration asked for a budget
increase for the third year in a row. The federal prison budget is now
$8.6 billion. Obama has now surpassed Bush in funding prisons and the
number of federal prisons incarcerated — 219,000 — half on drug related
crimes. The total prison population topped 2 million in 2003 and shows
no sign of decreasing even though states are running out of money to
jail people.
In Chicago, where 41 people where shot and 7 killed over the weekend,
the Clinton Global Initiative discussed many issues: None of them having
directly to do with youth or gang violence. Activists may want to take
careful note of the fact that it was President Clinton who ushered in a
massive crime bill that would help make the U.S. number one in the
world in incarceration. The legislation also continued the war on drugs.
Will Hillary Clinton, who is all but certain to run in 2016, endorse
the same policies?
Thomson Correctional Facility can house 1,800 people. The closing of 54
Chicago Public Schools effected 30,000 students and 850 jobs. Last
October, Sen. Durbin announced that the federal government would by the
prison for $165,000. The need for jobs is a frequently used
justification for building prisons. But how does it make sense to lay
off 850 people from the Chicago School System while at the same time
spending $170 million prison 150 miles away?
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel yucked it up about the Blackhawks with Bill
Clinton on MSNBC last week. Emanuel mentioned “parenting” as a key issue
to stop Chicago’s youth violence problem. What he didn’t mention was
the lack of funding for prevention and over criminalization in the role
of Chicago’s problem. Since Mayor Emanuel is President Obama’s former
chief of staff, there is almost no reaction from civil rights “leaders”
on the school closing or Chicago’s violence problem. After bragging
during the same interview that Chicago’s murder rate has dropped since
2012 — 41 people were shot over father’s day weekend in Chiacgo.
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