Here we go again!

I find it tragic and unacceptable this is the type of
"economic opportunity” americans get “excited” about ...the jobs that await as America continues the forward momentum of its experiment in mass encarceration. Remember always, “if we build it they will come”. THEY being you and me ... our children, our grandchildren, neighbors and family members ...the minions they will require to fill these facilities to reap the profits they greedily salivate over. Instead of delegating the current (and growing) $37+ BILLION of taxpayer money a year towards Americas prisons, why not put that hard earned money towards restructuring, redefining the draconian Mandatory Minimums and the Sentencing Guidelines…shorten the torturously long prison sentence lengths for nonviolent crimes, and instead put that money that assures the growth of this broken system, a system that does nothing to make society safer, rather perpetuates the cycle of failure and the revolving prison doors, towards actually MAKING or rebuilding something of value to an enlightened society ... such as our crumbling infrastructure (which would also create millions of jobs) or our failing schools and education system. But as I often find myself thinking when I read of such issues, "it is what it is", for I can see things will remain as they are for a long time to come, if the article below is any indication.

WTHITV.COM Thomson eager to push forward after prison sale
Updated: Sunday, 07 Oct 2012, 12:33 PM EDT
Published : Sunday, 07 Oct 2012, 12:33 PM EDT

THOMSON, Ill. (AP) — Residents of a small northwest Illinois village say they're eager for economic opportunities after the sale of a prison to the federal government.
The Chicago-Sun Times reports (bit.ly/Q4szWW) that the sale of Thomson Correctional Center could bring up to 1,600 inmates and just as many jobs to struggling Thomson where fewer than 600 people reside.
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons will pay $165 million for the facility and convert it into a maximum security prison estimated to generate about $200 million annually in economic activity. Thomson was built in the 1990s but never fully opened due to state budget shortfalls.
Some Republicans have blasted the sale saying it could "set in motion" a plan to house suspected terrorists.
Democrats rebuked those claims saying that treaties bar such action.

"I think we risk becoming the best informed society that has ever died of ignorance." ~Reuben Blades