Puerto Ricanstruction: Plans to Move 3,200 Puerto Ricans to a For-Profit Prison in Arizona
By Julian HaydaPuerto Ricanstruction: Plans to Move 3,200 Puerto Ricans to a For-Profit Prison in Arizona
By Julian HaydaEach Monday, during the 2018 hurricane season, Worldview presents the series Puerto Ricanstruction, when we discuss post-Maria life in Puerto Rico, and issues that matter to the people living there, and to Chicago’s Puerto Rican Diaspora. In the wake of Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico’s unelected financial oversight board (PROMESA) passed austerity measures that introduced sweeping cutbacks for hundreds of institutions on the island. The fiscal plan included a policy that would offshore one-third of Puerto Rico’s prison population to private prisons in the U.S.. Human rights defenders call this new policy a form of “government sponsored human trafficking,” because prisoners are torn away from their families and are not informed about the details of the prison program. The government claims this new program would save the island around $400 million in the next four years. Critics claim this is another means to benefit private prison corporations and their investors. Joining us to discuss this new prison system is senior reporter at The Guardian, Oliver Laughland. He spent a week in Puerto Rican prisons last month for the story “After Maria, Puerto Rico to move 3,200 inmates to Arizona.”