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<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></span></font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">tag for Prison industrial complex, newer content</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">stumble</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America's Poor</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Paul Wright, Tara Herivel</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Routledge, Oct 23, 2013 - Political Science - 344 pages</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="line-height: 18px;">https://books.google.com/books?id=MZe0AQAAQBAJ&dq=milken+enron+public+citizen&source=gbs_navlinks_s</span></font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/who-are-biggest-killers-america-numbers-will-shock-you
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">hedges says BC 100k cops led to 2 mil prisoners, now 2/3 m; 94% plea, so never tried; eg bl student confessed as 14yo (no family, no lawyer); another who refised to plead (he was not in the city of murder; they grabbed 4 addicts and threatened with cold turkey if did not name someone) 30 yrs before possible parole 5/15/15</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">4/15</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/deputy-who-accidentally-shot-restrained-man-wealthy-exec-who-pays-play-cop">http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/deputy-who-accidentally-shot-restrained-man-wealthy-exec-who-pays-play-cop</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">immigr moms in solitary for hunger strike, w/ kids; paid 3$/day, ice cream is 350, color bedspread syndrome kpfa 4/17</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 17px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">For the second time this spring, mothers held in a southern Texas privately-run immigrant detention center with their children have staged a hunger strike and work stoppage to protest their inhumane conditions of confinement and demand immediate release for themselves and their families.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 17px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Ten mothers detained at Karnes Detention Camp began the peaceful protest on Tuesday, vowing to eat only one meal per day until their demands are met, Mohammad Abdollahi, advocacy director for the San Antonio-based Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (Raices), told <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Common Dreams</em> Wednesday morning.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 17px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The women's demands echo those <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/04/02/dozens-mothers-stage-hunger-strike-immigrant-detention-center-texas" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">issued</a> by dozens of mothers who staged a similar peaceful protest at the facility in late March and early April to coincide with the Easter holiday.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 17px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The hunger strike launched on Tuesday aims high in the chain of command, <a href="http://www.raicestexas.org/pages/freedelmi" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">calling for</a>Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Sarah Saldaña to reverse course from the Obama administration's controversial policy of detaining families seeking asylum, and instead, grant the strikers parole and release.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 17px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The women say the situation is urgent.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 17px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">They report harrowing conditions at the prison, which has a capacity of 532 but is slated to expand to more than double its current beds. People held there are compensated just $3 a day for working to run the facility, denied their rights to meet with legal aid workers, forced to drink water contaminated by fracking waste, and their children are suffering ill health and psychological effects related to their incarceration, according to a <a href="http://colorlines.com/archives/2015/03/why_mothers_are_on_strike_at_karnes_immigrant_detention_center.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">letter</a> sent to<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Colorlines</em>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 17px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Women have <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/10/9/family-detentioncenterabuse.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">alleged</a> sexual abuse and assault from prison guards and staff, prompting community protests outside the facility.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 17px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Abdollahi, who is involved in direct support, compared the facility to an internment camp: "The conditions are absolutely horrendous. Parents are not allowed to be parents, to decide what their kids eat, how many times their diapers have changed. They have to ask permission for milk to nurse their children with."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 17px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">These conditions are "very harmful and detrimental," Abdollahi added, because a majority of people in the prison are fleeing violence.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 17px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Delmi Cruz is a 37-year-old mother and asylum-seeker from Honduras who has been detained at the facility with her 11-year-old son for over six months. </span>"It’s very hard here, the food isn’t adequate, it’s awful, horrible...the children who eat it become sick," Cruz <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/14/immigration-mothers-texas-detention-center-protest" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">told</a>the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Guardian</em>, according to an article published Tuesday. "My son has horrible stomach pain and is still very sick."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 17px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Cruz is participating in the hunger strike despite what she described as retaliation from guards for her part in the earlier protest, when she was placed in the medical unit's solitary confinement along with her son.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 17px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Abdollahi said there are signs this punishment is beginning again: "Cruz called us frightened on Tuesday, saying that women are being called to medical and there has been retaliation."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 17px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Bob Libal, executive director of the advocacy organization Grassroots Leadership, told<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Common Dreams</em> that the women on hunger strike are victims of the Obama administration's harsh policies towards people who seek asylum in the United States.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 17px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"Between 2009 and 2014, the policy was not to detain asylum-seeking families," said Libal. "This was after a very controversial policy during the Bush administration of locking up families. Many groups were involved in organizing and legislative efforts to end the practice of detaining families, and in 2009, the Obama administration said it was ending this practice."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 17px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"However," Libal added, "last summer after the increase in the number of refugee kids made the news, the administration reversed course."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 17px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Amid this political climate, the<b> Karnes facility was opened by ICE last summer under orders from the Department of Homeland Security</b> to detain asylum-seekers at the border, rather than grant them bond.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 17px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">GEO Group, the private company that runs the prison, has faced numerous <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/09/12255/violence-abuse-and-death-profit-prisons-geo-group-rap-sheet" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">accusations</a> of abuse, medical neglect, violence, and civil rights violations, including <a href="http://www.privateci.org/private_pics/GEO_suit2.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">hundreds of lawsuits</a>,</span> at its prisons and mental health facilities around the world. A <a href="http://grassrootsleadership.org/reports/payoff-how-congress-ensures-private-prison-profit-immigrant-detention-quota#1" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">report</a> released on Wednesday by Grassroots Leadership reveals that GEO Group, along with other private prison corporations, has aggressively lobbied for harsher immigration policies.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 17px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Outside the Karnes prison, people across the country are mobilizing to defend the people impacted by these policies.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 17px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Supporters of the hunger strike are <a href="http://www.raicestexas.org/pages/freedelmi" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">making phone calls to ICE</a>, signing <a href="http://www.raicestexas.org/pages/freedelmi" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">petitions</a>, and even planning solidarity vigils and fasts, said Abdollahi, adding, "These women are desperate to get out."</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://socialsciences.ucsc.edu/research/featured-research/crime-prison-reading-list.html">http://socialsciences.ucsc.edu/research/featured-research/crime-prison-reading-list.html</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-6292a298-62fd-75d2-c66b-4a031e6f716b" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; color: rgb(103, 102, 97); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><a href="http://sociology.ucsc.edu/faculty/singleton.php?&singleton=true&cruz_id=craigr" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(0, 69, 140); text-decoration: none;">Craig Reinarman</a>, Professor in the division’s Sociology Department, specializes in law, crime, and social justice and most recently published various arguments for loosening drug policy in the USA.</span></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; color: rgb(103, 102, 97); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><a href="http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_20721464/craig-reinarman-we-cannot-incarcerate-our-way-out" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(0, 69, 140); text-decoration: none;">Reinarman comments in the Santa Cruz Sentinel how </a>"Drug problems cannot be understood apart from the matrix of other social problems in which they are embedded. The solutions will not be simple. Not all drug abuse, licit or illicit, can be considered addiction and not everyone arrested for drug possession needs treatment. But there is a growing consensus that we cannot incarcerate our way out of our drug problems."</span></font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ucsc <span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.6em;">Professor Craig Haney will present a lecture entitled "Think Different: Why Everything We’ve Been Taught About Crime is Wrong and What We Need to Do About It."</span></span></font></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px none; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: top; line-height: 1.6em; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Professor Haney will describe the political and media misrepresentations of the nature and causes of crime in our society and their consequences in helping to fuel a very expensive and misguided set of crime control policies over the last several decades.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px none; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: top; line-height: 1.6em; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He will present the results of extensive research—his own and that of a number of others—demonstrating the developmental and social contextual origins of criminal behavior, including the impact of childhood risk factors, trauma, and maltreatment as well as economic inequality and neighborhood disadvantage on life trajectories.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px none; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: top; line-height: 1.6em; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Indeed, there is now an entire science of “life course criminology” that stands in direct opposition to the simplistic model of “free will” upon which much criminal law and prison policy continues to be based.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px none; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: top; line-height: 1.6em; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Haney will conclude by proposing an alternative, truly preventive model of crime control that stems directly from this fundamentally different understanding of the nature of criminality.</span></font></p><div id="watch-uploader-info" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 0%;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><strong class="watch-time-text" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; background: transparent;">Published on Nov 17, 2012</strong></font></div><div id="watch-description-text" class="" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; font-size: 13px; max-height: 51px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 17px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 0%;"><p id="eow-description" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; background: transparent;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">From early research with Stanley Milgram and Stanford's Prison Study to more current research into why humans behave the way they do, UCSC professor Craig Haney joins Moving Forward host Ann J. Simonton to discuss his work in this field. They also discuss Capital Punishment and his book, Death by Design. Let Media Watch know what you think of this program.</font></p><p id="eow-description" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; background: transparent;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: top; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BNd1ZFe_A</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: top; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">--</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: top; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">No one has documented the long-term psychological damage of incarceration in the United States more than UC Santa Cruz psychology professor Craig Haney.</span><br style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Haney, who holds psychology and law degrees, has spent his entire career watching prison populations grow while probing the psychology of imprisonment and the causes of violent crime. He has interviewed thousands of prisoners, many on death row or in solitary confinement in the nation’s growing stable of “supermax” prisons. </span><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Haney has been selected to deliver the 49th annual Faculty Research Lecture scheduled for Tuesday, April 7, 2015, at 7 p.m. at the Music Recital Hall on the UC Santa Cruz campus. The lecture is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and a reception will immediately follow. </span><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Haney's lecture is titled "PrisonWorld: How Mass Incarceration Transformed U.S. Prisons, Impacted Prisoners, and Changed American Society.” The faculty research lecturer is selected each year by UC Santa Cruz Academic Senate. </span><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Since the "war on drugs" in the early 1970s, U.S. prison numbers grew to account for 25 percent of all the world's prisoners even though the nation amounts to only 5 percent of the world's population. Haney has witnessed firsthand the profound transformation that has taken place in the American prison system, during a period that has been termed the “era of mass incarceration.” Since the publication of his 2006 book,</span><em style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 14.4px; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Reforming Punishment,</em><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> he has continued to document and assess conditions of confinement in many of the country’s harshest and most severe prisons.</span><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">During his lecture, Haney will illustrate and analyze his findings about the effects of the transformation of U.S. prison policies and conditions, including the rise of supermax prisons such as Pelican Bay in far northwestern California, and discuss the impact on prisoners most directly affected by it.</span><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">For decades, Haney, who joined UC Santa Cruz in 1977, has warned that surging prison populations and deteriorating conditions are a dangerous combination. “We need to remember that the overwhelming majority of prisoners will be released one day,” he says. “It should matter to all of us what state of mind they are in when they rejoin free society.” </span><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In 1971, as a graduate student working with Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University, Haney took part in and documented the infamous Stanford Prison experiment that simulated incarceration with students randomly selected to be guards and prisoners. </span><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Haney’s research hasn’t been limited to scholarly papers in obscure journals. Thursday, (March 26) Haney took part in the Bipartisan Summit on Criminal Justice Reform in Washington, D.C. joining advocates and analysts across the political spectrum to address the American criminal justice system and potential reforms. </span><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Haney has testified before the U.S. Senate and the California Legislature. His testimony in a 1999 federal court case challenging the constitutionality of supermax conditions led to a landmark decision in Texas. Another landmark ruling, this time in California, ordered the state to drastically reduce its prison population. The United States Supreme Court cited Haney’s analysis and trial testimony in upholding the order.</span><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He was named to a National Academy of Sciences panel of leading scholars and experts on corrections to study the causes and consequences of high rates of incarceration in the U.S. The panel’s report last year was a damning indictment of the growth of incarceration.</span><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In recent years, policy makers have begun to take notice. In August 2013, reversing years of tough political rhetoric in Washington, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder declared that levels of incarceration at federal, state and local levels had become both "ineffective and unsustainable.”</span><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"We cannot simply prosecute or incarcerate our way to becoming a safer country," he said. </span><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In January, New York City officials said they would eliminate the use of solitary confinement for all inmates age 21 and younger at the notorious Rikers Island prison.</span></font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></span>
</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px; border-style: none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; -moz-border-top-colors: none; -moz-border-right-colors: none; -moz-border-bottom-colors: none; -moz-border-left-colors: none; border-image: initial; outline: 0px none; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span class="caps" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">AMY</span> <span class="caps" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">GOODMAN</span>:</strong><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> But last month a federal judge ordered immigration authorities to begin releasing the women and children. He found the Obama administration’s policy of detaining them in order to deter others from coming was illegal. Since then more families have been granted bond and released, while others who are unable to afford the bonds remain locked up. They’re held at one of two new family detention centers run by private prison companies in South Texas. </span><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px; border-style: none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; -moz-border-top-colors: none; -moz-border-right-colors: none; -moz-border-bottom-colors: none; -moz-border-left-colors: none; border-image: initial; outline: 0px none; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Democracy Now!</em><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">’s Renée Feltz went there to find out more, she filed this report...</span></span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
</span></font><div><p class="collapsed-hide" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px none; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span class="caps" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">BARBARA</span> <span class="caps" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">HINES</span>:</strong> Well, you know, first of all, these are run by — the facility in Karnes is run by the <span class="caps" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">GEO</span> Group, the facility in Dilley is run by the Corrections Corporation of America, the Corrections Corporation of America is same facility that ran Hutto the last iteration of family detention that I actually did litigate, where children were held in — babies in prison uniforms, and these corporations thought that was acceptable. The women and the children have no control over their lives. Everything is regimented. What time they get up. What they eat. The food is very bad. The medical care is substandard. Guards, just like when we litigated at Hutto, as I said, which was the last version of family detention, women have told us that they have been threatened that if their children misbehave they will be reported to the immigration judge, that it can negatively affect their case. Children who get out of line — and of course, these are young children. How can you have children running around that do not stay in line? We had a mother with a baby that was learning to crawl, and that<b> baby was not allowed on the ground because the guards at <span class="caps" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">GEO</span> said that that was unsafe. </b>She was forced to carry the baby around, which, of course, has terrible developmental affects for a child who is trying to learn to crawl and walk.</span></font></p><p class="collapsed-hide" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px none; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span class="caps" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">AMY</span> <span class="caps" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">GOODMAN</span>:</strong> Barbara Hines, we have to leave that here, but we are going to do part two of the conversation and post at online at democracy.org especially what happens in the courtroom when the women see the judge through video screen from prison. Barbara Hines, Former Director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas Law School. And Renée Feltz. And thanks to Tish Stringer for her video.</span></font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b style="line-height: 16.8px; outline: medium none; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://org2.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=VCnDyh9XeHcl%2BSXLe8d64h7kksnNBJnb" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em; outline: none;">CONDITIONS AT FOR-PROFIT IMMIGRANT DETENTION FACILITIES IN TEXAS DRAW LEGAL ACTION:</a></b><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Though its deportation relief efforts have been put on hold, the Obama administration continues to carry out its policy of detaining Central American immigrant children and families apprehended at the border. Attorneys for the detainees recently took legal action to address harsh conditions at the government's privately-managed family detention centers. (2/19/2015)</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=
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</font></div><div><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; line-height: 15.6px; outline: medium none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; margin: 0px auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" width="560"><tbody style="line-height: 1.2em; outline: none;"><tr style="line-height: 1.2em; outline: none;"><td style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top; border: none; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; border-spacing: 2px;" valign="top" width="475"><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: medium none; font-size: 16px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://act.alternet.org/go/58066?t=9&akid=12813.1076705.lwhHNz" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em; outline: none;">Man Gets 37 Years of Solitary Confinement for Updating Facebook</a></font></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: medium none; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; color: rgb(77, 77, 77);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">By Zaid Jilani, AlterNet</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: medium none; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The shocking penalties prisoners face for banal activities like updating social networking sites. <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://act.alternet.org/go/58066?t=10&akid=12813.1076705.lwhHNz" class="yiv2480537194readmore" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(202, 133, 0); line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; font-size: 9px; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.1em;">READ MORE»</a></font></p></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">open secrets</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px; color: rgb(33, 43, 74); font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><i>The following is adapted from OpenSecrets.org’s new marijuana issue profile. </i><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/issues/marijuana/" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><i>Read more</i></a><i> about the marijuana industry’s campaign donations and lobbying efforts as well as relevant marijuana focused legislation.</i></font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px; color: rgb(33, 43, 74); font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In late November 2012, voters in Washington and Colorado passed ballot initiatives to fully legalize marijuana for recreational use. Coloradans were able to start purchasing recreational marijuana on Jan. 1, 2014. As for Washington, the state issued its first retail marijuana licenses about six months later, on July 7th.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px; color: rgb(33, 43, 74); font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">So how has Colorado been doing?</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px; color: rgb(33, 43, 74); font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Since the beginning of 2014 though early June, Colorado had reaped nearly $11 million in sales and excise taxes on recreational marijuana, with the total take from both recreational and medical marijuana taxes and fees topping out at nearly $18 million, according to the <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/marijuana/ci_25930253/colorado-recreational-marijuana-sales-taxes-boomed-april" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Denver Post</a>. In the fiscal year that begins in July, Colorado could even see $98 million in marijuana tax revenue according to a recent <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/19/benefits-legalizing-weed-by-the-numbers_n_5173785.html" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">budget proposal</a> from Gov. John Hickenlooper.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px; color: rgb(33, 43, 74); font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">But Colorado is not the only state cashing in on marijuana profits. As of August 2014, 22 states and the District of Columbia have <a href="http://norml.org/legal/medical-marijuana-2" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">legalized</a> medical marijuana and 16 have<a href="http://norml.org/aboutmarijuana/item/states-that-have-decriminalized" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">decriminalized</a> it. Of course, along with the arguments for legalizing marijuana — the revenue boost, more effective law enforcement and criminal justice, less money supporting organized crime, and wider access for medicinal use — there are also arguments against it. Marijuana is a drug, and with all drug substances there are side effects — including altered perception, which doesn’t mix well with driving. In an effort to promote safe, recreational cannabis use, Colorado is spending <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/marijuana/ci_25286406/colorado-launches-campaign-stop-stoned-driving" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">$1 million</a> on television ads reminding users: “Drive High, Get a DUI.” Additionally, the National Institute on Drug Abuse states that marijuana can negatively affect your brain, lungs, heart, and mental health.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px; color: rgb(33, 43, 74); font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Whatever the health effects, the legalization of cannabis brings a formerly black market into the legal economy and gives rise to a new industry that spends money in Washington to further its interests.</font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px; color: rgb(33, 43, 74); font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Where is the Opposition?</b></font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px; color: rgb(33, 43, 74); font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">As it turns out, there is big money in marijuana prohibition.</font></p><ul style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(33, 43, 74); font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><li style="margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-position: inside;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><i>Alcohol and Beer Companies.</i> For the alcoholic beverage industry, legalized marijuana would compete for money Americans devote to leisure pursuits. As a result, some alcohol industries are very slowly beginning to lobby against the legalization of bud. For example, back in 2010 one independent distributor of the California Beer and Beverage Distributors gave <a href="http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1326337&view=received&session=2009&psort=NAME" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">$10,000</a> to Public Safety First, a PAC working against California’s Prop 19 which, if passed, would have legalized various marijuana-related activities in the state. At the federal level, these companies assert their heft by pouring millions into lobbying and campaign donations. Since 2009 the <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=N02" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Beer, Wine and Liquor industry</a> has spent <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/lobbying.php?cycle=2014&ind=N02" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">at least $19.5 million each year</a> on lobbying efforts, most of which have been focused on alcohol taxes and regulations. And in the 2012 campaign cycle, the industry <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/totals.php?cycle=2014&ind=N02" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">gave nearly $17.8 million</a> to federal candidates, parties and committees.</font></li><li style="margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-position: inside;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><i>Police Unions.</i> Public Safety First itself, however, is largely funded by a different industry that’s unhappy about the legalization of marijuana: law enforcement. The revenue from waging the war on drugs has become a significant source of financial support for local law enforcement. Federal and state funding of the drug war — as well as the property police forces seize as a part of drug raids — have become significant financial supplements to local forces’ <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/21/this-buds-not-for-you-bee_n_732901.html" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">budgets</a>. While these unions exert more influence at the local level (what state or local candidate doesn’t want the endorsement of the Fraternal Order of Police?), they have a presence in Washington as well. Every year since 2008 the National Fraternal Order of Police has spent at least $220,000 on lobbying efforts; the National Association of Police Organizations, $160,000; the International Union of Police Associations, $80,000; and the International Association of Chiefs of Police, $80,000.</font></li><li style="margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-position: inside;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><i>Private Prison Corporations.</i> Private prisons are in the business of filling their jails’ beds, and they make millions by incarcerating nonviolent drug users, such as those convicted for marijuana use and possession, along with violent felons and white-collar criminals. The private prison company GEO is particularly successful at this. In its 2012 annual report, GEO noted that it had filled 65,949 out of 73,000 beds in its 96 facilities; on average the company had a facility occupancy rate of 95.7% for 2012. One of the largest for-profit prison companies, <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?cycle=2014&strID=C00366468" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Corrections Corporation of America</a>, even stated in a <a href="http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9NDE5MTEwfENoaWxkSUQ9NDMyMjg1fFR5cGU9MQ&t=1" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">regulatory filing</a> that keeping the drug war alive is essential to its success as a business: “[A]ny changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them.” Since 2008, the Corrections Corporation of America has spent at least $970,000 a year on lobbying. <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/lobby.php?id=D000022003" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">GEO</a> has been less consistent in its lobbying efforts and has spent anywhere between $240,000 to $660,000 a year on lobbying since 2008.</font></li><li style="margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-position: inside;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><i>Prison Guard Unions.</i> Similar to for-profit prison companies, prison guard unions also have a vested interest in keeping nonviolent drug offenders behind bars. The<a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/all_recips.php?id=D000044707&type=B&filter=&stfed=S&nid=3286" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">California Correctional Peace Officers Association</a> for example gave <a href="http://igs.berkeley.edu/library/elections/proposition-5" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">$1 million</a> to the successful 2008 campaign against Proposition 5, which would have “reduce[d] the parole terms of nonviolent [drug] offenders” while emphasizing drug treatment and rehabilitation programs. At the national level, many prison guards are represented by the <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000061&cycle=2012" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees</a> (AFSCME), one of the most politically active labor unions. In the 2012 campaign cycle AFSCME gave more than $13 million to candidates, parties and committees at the federal level. In 2013, AFSCME spent almost $2.7 million on lobbying efforts.</font></li><li style="margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-position: inside;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><i>Pharmaceutical Corporations.</i> Retired police officer turned anti-drug war lobbyist Howard Wooldridge told the <a href="http://www.republicreport.org/2012/police-marijuana-cpac/" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Republic Report</a> in 2012 that one of his biggest opponents on Capitol Hill was the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), given that marijuana can “tak[e] the place of everything from Advil to Vicodin and other expensive pills.” PhRMA is certainly an organization to be reckoned with. In 2013 alone <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000000504&year=2014" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">PhRMA</a> spent nearly $18 million on lobbying, ranking it ninth in spending among all lobbying clients. <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/totals.php?cycle=2014&ind=H4300" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Drug manufacturers</a> gave big in the 2012 elections — nearly $21.8 million to various federal candidates and committees as well as the parties.</font></li></ul></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>