TV Night For America, Prison Nation

By Jeralyn, Section Media
Posted on Tue Oct 18, 2011 at 02:02:07 PM EST
Tags: private prisons, immigration detention (all tags)

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There are two important TV programs to watch tonight.

9 p.m. (ET): CNBC will air "Billions Behind Bars: Inside America's Prison Industry." The program examines the multi-billion dollar industry of private prisons. The Justice Policy Institute (JPI) was consulted by CNBC producers throughout the making of the documentary following its release this summer of Gaming the System: How the Political Strategies of Private Prison Companies Promote Ineffective Incarceration Policies, which explored the political strategies private prison companies employ to influence policy.

9 pm ET: PBS: Lost in Detention, FRONTLINE and the Investigative Reporting Workshop examine the Obama administration’s controversial get-tough immigration policy. [More...]

The Frontline program also examines Secure Communities and explains why three Governors have backed out:

“More than 30 percent of those deported from the United States, under the program, have never been convicted of any crime, much less a serious one,” [Il. Gov.] Quinn and Illinois State Police Director Hiram Grau wrote in a May letter [PDF] to Marc Rapp, the acting assistant director of Secure Communities.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's letter is here. Mass. Governor Devel Patrick was the third Governor to object.

Also on the Frontline program: How latino voters are likely to react to President Obama's re-election bid.

< Tuesday Morning Open Thread | ICE Announces 400,000 Deportations in 2011 >

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TV Night For America, Prison Nation | 3 comments (3 topical)

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Thanks for the heads up... (none / 0) (#1)
by kdog on Tue Oct 18, 2011 at 03:58:56 PM EST

a chain and cage double feature...an important reminder that we have a mulit-faceted humanitarian crisis as well as an economic one, and a political one that ties 'em all together.

Go back! It's a cookbook! (none / 0) (#3)
by Rojas on Wed Oct 19, 2011 at 07:41:41 AM EST

Texans offer up some advice to our Northern Neighbors.

It's a very expensive thing to build new prisons and, if you build 'em, I guarantee you they will come. They'll be filled, OK? Because people will send them there.

Watched the Frontline.... (none / 0) (#4)
by kdog on Wed Oct 19, 2011 at 08:21:35 AM EST

forgive us lord I don't think we the people truly know what they do. And for those that know what we do and do what we do, I hope and pray karma will find you.

I knew it was bad, but I really had no idea. By all rights that for profit house of horrors detention center in Texas should be burned to the ground.

I challenge anybody to watch Frontline and still pull a lever for Obama. The guy is a human rights disaster, worse than Bush. Same goes for all the cowards in Congress.