The House I Live In, PBS Feature on War On Drugs

This two-hour feature provides an in depth look at the War on Drugs and the harm it does in the name of good. One prison guard articulated the pattern where private prison corporations get towns with high unemployment to build the prisons which the corporations lease as income for the city. They then fill up the prisons with addicts and sellers.

Two quotes focus on some of the problems.

"Understand that the political infrastructure is so wedded to the status quo that they're so consumed with the next election that there will never emerge a shred of leadership that will change the situation."

"We need to care about that person down the block because the same rights that they have, you have. And if you let their rights be compromised their rights are compromised. At some point you have to stand up and say, 'It's not O.K.'"

Missing from this film are any arguments from proponents of the war on drugs.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/house-i-live-in/film.html

PBS
The House I Live In
Independent Lens

Private Prison Abuses Exposed

Corrections Director fails to recognize that prison guards universally tend to abuse their power over prisoners. Psychological experiments by Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University
http://news.stanford.edu/pr/97/970108prisonexp.html
prove humans abuse their power over others. This prison boss is in denial (or perhaps just ignorant of what he should be aware).

[From article]
Idaho Department of Correction Director Brent Reinke said "The Board of Correction acknowledges that when you put a group of people who have a history of criminal behavior together in one place, it is likely you will have problems. But that doesn't mean we should tolerate them," Reinke wrote.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20101130/D9JQDB7G3.html

AP Enterprise: Guards shown watching inmate attack
Nov 30, 5:44 AM (ET)
By REBECCA BOONE