Josh Rushing

Primer: Profits and Punishment

Here’s a primer for my latest episode of Fault Lines. It’s about for-profit immigration detention facilities in the US. This was put together by the show’s producer, Anjali Kamat.

For more on why undocumented migration from Mexico is at an all-time low see: http://is.gd/QXq5Pk & http://is.gd/xH0qNO

@DetentionWatch has a useful map of all the #immigration #detention ctrs in the US. http://is.gd/wD53hH

On average the federal govt pays prison operators – both private as well as county jails - $122 a day per detainee.

For more about the #dreamact and Jose Salcedo @slumdogsalcedo: http://is.gd/e4PMfD

#nosomosrubios is a campaign critical of Sen. Marco Rubio’s bid for VP launched by @presenteorg http://is.gd/wYe3bP

Sen. Rubio is now pushing a Republican version of the DREAM act: http://is.gd/tz3a82 & http://is.gd/pJmi1B

See “Marco Rubio’s Prison Problem” by Beau Hodai: http://is.gd/c4oRCd

Excellent backgrounder on profits & #immigration #detention from @DetentionWatch http://is.gd/g7PZIl #dwn

Also great on immigrant gold rush & #privateprisons - Judy Greene & Sunita Patel: http://is.gd/RknEwW

From Oct 2003 – Mar 2012: 129 deaths in #ICE detention: http://is.gd/DtL7P1

@ACLU is a great resource on sexual abuse of detainees in #ICE custody http://is.gd/m2h6Z7

Even if all the new civil detention ctrs R built, 86 % of #ICE detainees wd still be held in jail-like facilities http://is.gd/W5poGg

Meanwhile Republican Congressman Lamar Smith of Texas calls detention reform a “holiday”: http://is.gd/G0JI3I

Since 2009 #ICE has added or promised over 6000 new detention beds, most run by #privateprisons. via @humanrights1st

Critical look at reforms to detention system by @kalhan in Columbia Law Review http://is.gd/Pttdet

 Is the focus on conditions taking attention away from ending detention altogether? http://is.gd/h91P6U

Alternatives to detention: cheaper & more humane: http://is.gd/Lr3QqS via @LIRSorg

Telephones in #ICE detention facilities are operated by private companies that charge exorbitant rates for making & receiving calls

We asked #ICE how much #privateprisons might be saving by using detainee labor instead of hiring workers to cook & clean

Gary Mead of #ICE said he didn’t know because the operating costs for #privateprisons are “proprietary information.”

#Privateprisons are not subject to FOIA requests. On lack of accountability & abuse concerns: @ACLU report: http://is.gd/FRx4Ve

Prison Legal News is another great resource on #privateprisons http://is.gd/UhMrNu

A brief history of immigration detention: http://is.gd/pRkelt #DWN

@silkys13 has a stark history of #immigration #detention after 9/11 in @SamarMagazine: http://is.gd/DbbuyH

Infographic on Secure Communities by @reneefeltz & @stokelybaksh on their site: Deportation Nation http://is.gd/wZ4Gm9

@sethfw on the “criminal aliens” captured in recent #ICE raids across the country

http://is.gd/wUC8x8

Is the Dept of Homeland Security redefining criminality? http://is.gd/JyxYDK

Many were against a proposed #ICE facility in SouthWest Ranches run by the largest #privateprison company: CCA http://is.gd/qhdd0Y

Calls for Wall Street to divest from #privateprisons: http://is.gd/yio9xo & http://is.gd/OODZt0

ALEC is behind many of the tough laws on crime & immigration benefitting #privateprisons: http://is.gd/xvXqZp via @ALECexposed

On lobbying by GEO & CCA see http://is.gd/tXRrRl & @Justice_Policy report Gaming the System: http://is.gd/g20GCD

Also an older site by @reneefeltz & @stokelybaksh: Business of Detention http://is.gd/v1ao52

@txprisonbidness is a great resource on detention in Texas: http://is.gd/h8W8qe

A brief and accessible introduction to the mandatory detention of non-citizens from @DetentionWatch: http://is.gd/DHAu1i #DWN

Most people are surprised to hear that a large number of greencard holders like Naz can end up in immigration detention

Pearsall, where Naz was held, was the site of alleged sexual abuse in 2008. Last year guards protested their low wages http://is.gd/iizp5D

Naz also talked about the poor medical care in Pearsall and how it took days before he could see a nurse when he was ill or injured

@Nomoredeaths has a strong report on abuses by the border patrol: http://is.gd/FySBnn

At a courthouse in McAllen, TX, we witnessed but weren’t allowed to film the mass trial of some 35 men and women.

Some had grown up in the US, others in Mexico or Guatemala. They all had family in the US.

The trial – a daily occurrence - was heartbreaking. One lawyer watching said: “This is where the American dream comes to die.”

Prosecuting people for illegal entry makes up more than half of all federal criminal filings: http://is.gd/qhQxYE

Illegal re-entry cases have surged under President Obama: http://is.gd/lKvFiR

Fault Lines: On the Pulse of the Pentagon

The US announced a new military strategy today at a Pentagon briefing. Much of the discussion concerned what could be read as predictable—and cyclic—budget cuts of a post-war drawdown. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also took pains to mention what wouldn’t feel the fiscal pinch: offensive and defensive cyber security and unmanned systems.

We at Fault Lines have covered and predicted both of these trends.

First with an episode called Cyberwar.

A growing fear of computer hackers—a term encompassing a broad range of entities from digital spy rings to information thieves to cyberarmies of kids, criminals and terrorists (some backed by nation states)—and their potentially massive threat to national security has Washington maneuvering into position to defend its assets from a new style of warfare: one without foot soldiers, guns or missiles. Crucial national infrastructure, high value commercial secrets, tens of billions of dollars in defense contracts—as well as values like privacy and freedom of expression—are at stake. 

In this episode of Fault Lines, I enter the domain of “cyber” and speak to a former US national security official turned cybersecurity consultant, a Silicon Valley CEO, a hacker, and those who warn of a growing arms race in cyberspace.

Is the US contributing to the militarisation of cyberspace? Are the reports of cyber threats being distorted by a burgeoning security industry? And are the battles being waged in cyberspace interfering with the Internet as we know it? 

Then last week we filed a report titled Robot Wars.

Over the past decade, the US military has shifted the way it fights its wars, deploying more unmanned systems in the battlefield than ever before.

Today there are more than 7,000 drones and 12,000 ground robots in use by all branches of the military.

These systems mean less American deaths and also less political risk for the US when it takes acts of lethal force – often outside of official war zones.

But US lethal drone strikes in countries like Pakistan have brought up serious questions about the legal and political implications of using these systems.

Fault Lines looks at how these new weapons of choice are allowing the US to stretch the international laws of war and what it could mean when more and more autonomy is developed for these lethal machines.

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