Freddie Gray. Walter Scott. Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, et al. The roll call continues to grow. But must be halted, dead in its tracks. Because we cannot allow these snuffed-out lives to be written off as mere "collateral damage" in a law enforcement and judicial system gone amok. Their stories are just the tip of the iceberg. For without systemic change, any indictments of those responsible for the deaths of these young black men and women across the country and short-sighted solutions like body cameras for police officers are akin to a kid-sized "Band-Aid" applied to a gaping and catastrophic wound.

We have already connected the dots: People - and black men, in particular - are being profiled and targeted not just for incarceration but as "repeat customers" for the Prison- For-Profit industry, originally endorsed by Republican President George W. Bush. This is a present-day reality. And the companies that are part of this new "hospitality industry," which add to the oppression of people caught in their lairs, must be run out of business!

There is an inherently dangerous component to the success of such businesses, as implicit in their very existence and profitability is the fact that "customers" have to be actively sought. How else could such a business model work and such a system thrive, except through arrest quotas for police officers and judges for hire? How can we tolerate an industry that's threatened by a DECLINE in criminals? How can we tolerate a system that enables Wall Street companies to sue our state governments for not having enough prisoners?

This petition isn't based on some conspiracy theory; the facts are clear. Moreover, the "big business" vision of this prison industrial complex extends well beyond profiting off the backs of prisoners and their families. Indeed, our prisons are now being marketed to Wall Street as a collective resource for cheap American labor in an effort to lure jobs back from overseas - a clear conflict of interest, insofar as it creates insatiable demand for prison labor. "At least 37 states," we are told, "have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations that mount their operations inside state prisons. The list of such companies contains the cream of U.S. corporate society: IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nordstrom’s, Revlon, Macy’s, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, and many more. All of these businesses are excited about the economic boom generation by prison labor. Just between 1980 and 1994, profits went up from $392 million to $1.31 billion..."

Please sign our petition - this is about you; this is about me; this is about ALL of us, speaking with a united voice - asking Congress to pass legislation to end the oppression and the real trickle down effect of this Prison-For-Profit industry: arrest quotas, judges for hire, and families being extorted at the hands of vulture corporations in order to financially support and subsidize loved ones inside the prison system.

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UPDATE:  We note that on September 17, 2015, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) officially began taking on the country’s private prison industry. By introducing a bill that would ban government contracts with private prisons, the 2016 presidential contender is quickly becoming the loudest advocate for criminal justice reform among his competitors.

The Justice is Not For Sale Act of 2015, co-sponsored by Reps. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ), Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Bobby L. Rush (D-IL), would prohibit the federal government from entering contracts with private prison corporations within two years of the bill’s enactment. Instead, state and local government will be solely responsible for overseeing state and local correctional facilities. The bill would also reinstate the federal parole system and eliminate quotas for the number of immigrants held in detention facilities. Regulators will be directed to prevent companies from charging unreasonable fees for services like banking and telecommunications.

While we are grateful for the introduction of this bill, we cannot stop now. We need to emphatically demonstrate to BOTH Congress and the Senate (to whom our petition is also addressed) that this bill has the full support of the people! Please sign our petition...today!