Grassroots Leadership Issues "Green Paper"

Operation Streamline: Drowning Justice and
Draining Dollars along the Rio Grande

Operation Streamline mandates the criminal prosecution of border-crossers in certain areas. Before Streamline, immigration was usually enforced in the civil immigration system. This report analyzes the impact of Streamline on two border districts in Texas.

The report is a work-in-progress hence, a "green paper." We hope to stimulate debate, and encourage civil and informed dialogue on the Operation Streamline blog.

Read the full report >>
Join the conversation on the Operation Streamline blog >>

“Mom, Why Is God Not Helping Us?”
Private, For-profit Prisons Holding Children and Families
By Si Kahn

Watch the video Hutto:America’s Family Prison>>

In 2003, the 215th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) approved the “Resolution Calling for the Abolition of For-Profit Private Prisons.” In his introduction to the resolution,Clifton Kirkpatrick, then Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, wrote:

This resolution is the result of a development process that included a careful analysis of the arguments for and against for-profit private prisons and draws upon the biblical sources and insights from the Reform tradition.The resolution begins with a reaffirmation of previous policies approved by the predecessor bodies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.),which addresses the hurts and needs of the victim, the offender and the community. In the context of forprofit private prisons, the resolution proclaims:

Since the goal of for-profit private prisons is earning a profit for their shareholders, there is a basic and fundamental conflict with the concept of rehabilitation as the ultimate goal of the prison system.We believe that this is a glaring and significant flaw in our justice system and that for-profit private prisons should be abolished.

This is a powerful, principled statement.But no resolution, however carefully wrought, can convey the wrenching reality of life in a for-profit private prison, jail or detention center. So what are the realities for the 120,000- plus people currently incarcerated in a for-profit prison? complete article>>

EDITORIAL
New York Times -Too Broken to Fix
April 9, 2010

The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general has affirmed what sheriffs, police chiefs, civil-rights lawyers and immigrant advocates have said for years: Outsourcing immigration enforcement to an ill-trained and poorly supervised assortment of state and local law enforcement agencies creates a lot of problems.

The program, commonly known as 287(g), deputizes local authorities as federal immigration agents so they can help Immigration and Customs Enforcement capture illegal immigrants who threaten the community or national security. A new report by the inspector general instead paints a portrait of 287(g) agencies as a motley posse of deputies who don’t know Spanish, who don’t know or care about the dangers of racial profiling and who operate well beyond the control of the federal agency that they are supposed to be working for. complete article>>

New Interactive Texas Map

Texas is home to more than 70 private prisons, jails, and detention centers.

The new map gives readers a chance to see which private prison corporations operate the most prisons in Texas. The map also includes contact information for each facility, and the "facility pages"and "company pages" will track upcoming Texas Prison Bid'ness posts related to scandals and news involving specific private prison companies and their facilities.

Texas Prison Bid'ness is a joint project of Justice Strategies and Grassroots Leadership

Who we are...

Grassroots Leadership is a national Southern-based multiracial team of organizers who work to help community labor, campus and faith organizations think critically, work strategically and take direct action to end social and economic oppression, gain power, and achieve justice and equity.

Grassroots Leadership's goal is to strengthen democracy and enhance the public good by working to transform the justice system. We advocate for a community-based justice system and alternatives to incarceration, work to end the unnecessary practices of immigrant and family detention, abolish all for-profit private prisons, jails and detention centers and organize with those most impacted by incarceration and detention.

P.O. Box 36006, Charlotte, NC 28236-6006
shipping: 1346 St. Julien Street, Charlotte, NC 28205

voice: 704.332.3090
fax: 704.332.0445