Parchman

“The Parchman prison, which dates to 1904, has a long and infamous history of violence and abuse. It also has a history of reform. But no amount of change has been able to break the cycle of brutality. And why would it? The history of Parchman is a prime example of how dehumanization and neglect are intrinsic to separating people from their freedom.”

— “12 Deaths in Mississippi Tell a Grim Story,” Jamelle Bouie, New York Times

More:

“People Keep Dying In Mississippi Prisons but the Governor Wants to Move On,” Liliana Segura, The Intercept

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Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-uoq

Video: “Parchman Farm,” written and recorded by Mose Allison, 1959.

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Inside a Border Internment Camp for Migrant Kids

Above: Video provided by authorities, not the media.

On Tuesday, MSNBC’s Jacob Soboroff toured Casa Padre, a former Walmart that houses nearly 1,500 migrant children in Brownsville. It’s got an inspirational mural of Donald Trump. Since it was established in March 2017, Casa Padre has been cited for 17 child welfare infractions by Texas inspectors. This is one of 26 shelters in Texas, Arizona and California, Georgia, New York, Wisconsin and Florida, holding a total of 14,000 immigrant children and youths, run by an outfit called Southwest Key.

More: 

“Child abuse is now part of America’s official immigration policy,” Michael Paarlberg, The Guardian

“Conservative Religious Leaders Are Denouncing Trump Immigration Policies,” Laurie Goodstein, New York Times

“Trump and Sessions have created prisons for Spanish-speaking children,” Eugene Robinson, Washington Post

“No, Jeff Sessions, Separating Kids From Their Parents Isn’t ‘Biblical,'” Ed Kilgore, New York Magazine

Tropical Island Resort Property Available Soon

President Obama has announced his intention to finally, definitely, this time for sure, close down America’s offshore concentration camp at sunny Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The current tenants (most of whom have never been indicted or convicted of anything, but were simply denounced by score-settling neighbors and traded to the US for $5,000 cash bounties) are eager to relocate.

The US needs to liquidate this sunny surplus property now, while the demand for Cuban real estate is high, and provide the returns to the U.S. Treasury, which has spent $6 billion on Gitmo since G.W. Bush established it in 2002. And who knows, maybe American resort developers will be the successful bidders. Is it too early to make reservations for the Trump Tropical Gitmo Palace?

Tropical Island Resort Property Available Soon

A long-anticipated real estate deal is about to put eight prime parcels of tropical paradise on the market. White House press secretary Josh Earnest blabbed that the Obama Administration is finally ready to close down the Guantánamo Bay concentration camps detention centers on the sunny island of Cuba.

The canny Mr. Obama teased the deal back in 2009, but waited for the Cuban real estate market to take off, and it’s muy caliente after US normalization of relations with the island nation. There are already deals in the works for a dozen new luxury golf courses, and tourists from as far away as China are waiting for tee times.

The “Gitmo” detention centers now hold 116 inmates guests at a cost of more than $100 million (possibly $454 million) a year, so it’s plainly time to cash out and recoup costs during Cuba’s current resort development boom. The deal would look better without sitting tenants and since 106 of those 116 guests have never been charged or convicted of anything, it’s time to find them other accommodations. And why host the remaining 10 guests at an annual cost of at least $10 million each when the Government Accountability Office has found many alternatives?

Berlusconi Big House Bound?

Silvio Berlusconi, billionaire septuagenarian, football team owner, former Italian Prime Minister, Bunga-Bunga Party host, and one-time cruise ship crooner, was convicted in a wiretap leak trial and sentenced to a year in prison. Actually, under Italian law, old farts don’t have to serve sentences of under two years in prison. His 63-year-old kid brother Paolo, editor of Il Giornale, may not be so lucky; he was sentenced to two years and three months.

Resort Property May Be Available Soon

Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to look for alternative USA housing for the uncharged inmates our government has been holding for over a decade at Guantanamo Bay. The GAO found 104 sites, 98 Justice Department and 6 military prisons suitable for holding terrorism convicts. Mind you, those guys haven’t been convicted of anything, but you get the idea.