Art is not made to decorate rooms. It is an offensive weapon in the defense against the enemy. Pablo Picasso, 1943-03-24
I saw the ‘Diversity’ poster by Michael D’Antuono in a tweet from Malcolm
Nance.
Diversity Makes America Great
WHAT IS AMERICAS NATIONAL IDENTITY? See my favorite poster “Diversity” by Michael D'Antuono @ArtAndResponse | The Norman Rockwell of the Resistance https://t.co/3ou99IthUk
But it is not the first line treatment for illnesses that rob the brain of its ability concentrate and use reason.
People sick enough to become homeless need intensive case management and long-term structured treatment facilities.
The ‘prison industry’ wants to fill that need for ‘long term’ treatment.
“Mental health problems are rampant in local jails, often because the illness was a primary factor in the offensive conduct. The cost of caring for and supervising mentally ill inmates makes them two to three times more expensive to house. Once released, they often stop taking their medications, which lands them in trouble with the law and back behind bars.” NYT FEB. 27, 2017
Mental Illness, untreated Behind Bars
Reprocessed Video Grab from Institutionalized-Mental Health Behind Bars by VICE News
An alarming trend has emerged giving private prison profiteers control of person’s fate for life, not just the term of a prison sentence.
The CEOs who built billion dollar empires as partners in ‘tough on crime’ policies are adapting to prison reforms by re branding themselves ‘treatment’ providers.
They see the collapse of our public mental health system as an opportunity
to expand and profit from long-term psychiatric hospitals, civil commitment centers, and ‘correctional’ treatments.
Correct Care Solutions, formerly known as GEO Care, a spin-off of GEO Group, has deep roots in the private prison industry. Although the company has shifted and changed numerous times over the last few years, CCS currently runs seven “treatment” facilities in Florida, Texas and South Carolina, including five mental health facilities and two civil commitment centers.
“Dr. Martin Luther King was pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, when he was twenty-five years old, in 1954. As a Christian minister, his main influence was Jesus Christ and the Christian gospels, which he would almost always quote in his religious meetings, speeches at church, and in public discourses. King’s faith was strongly based in Jesus’ commandment of loving your neighbor as yourself, loving God above all, and loving your enemies, praying for them and blessing them. His nonviolent thought was also based in the injunction to turn the other cheek in the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus’ teaching of putting the sword back into its place (Matthew 26:52). In his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail, King urged action consistent with what he describes as Jesus’ “extremist” love, and also quoted numerous other Christian pacifist authors, which was very usual for him. In another sermon, he stated:
“Before I was a civil rights leader, I was a preacher of the Gospel. This was my first calling and it still remains my greatest commitment. You know, actually all that I do in civil rights I do because I consider it a part of my ministry. I have no other ambitions in life but to achieve excellence in the Christian ministry. I don’t plan to run for any political office. I don’t plan to do anything but remain a preacher. And what I’m doing in this struggle, along with many others, grows out of my feeling that the preacher must be concerned about the whole man.”
