Changes

! style="padding:2px;" | <h2 style="margin:3px; background:#000000; font-size:140%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #000000; text-align:left; color:#ffffff; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Some of this Corporate Agenda Has Become ALEC Ratified "Stand Your Ground" Law</h2>

| style="color:#000000;" | <div style="padding:2px 5px;"><h3> Truth in Sentencing & Private Prisons </h3>[[Image:WisconsinTrayvon.pngjpg|left|90px150px]] When current Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was a state representativeIn February 2012, he 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was an ALEC member shot and introduced several bills proposed killed by ALEC, including "Truth in Sentencing" 28-year-old George Zimmerman as the unarmed high school student returned from a 7-11 with an iced tea and bills bag of Skittles. Police initially failed to privatize arrest Zimmerman because of the state's prison system. Passed in Wisconsin in 1997, "Truth in SentencingStand Your Ground" requires inmates law, which goes beyond the traditional right to serve their full sentence and reduced incentives for earlier parole or supervised releaseself defense by establishing a legal presumption of immunity if a killer claims they had a reasonable fear of bodily harm. The Walker program law has inflated prison populations been described as an invitation to vigilantism and greatly increased the amount of taxpayer dollars spent on prisons a "license to kill."<br>In March 2012, CMD [http://prwatch.org/news/2012/03/11366/alec-ratified-nra-conceived-law-may-protect-trayvon-martins- killer reported] that NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer [http://mediamatters.org/blog/201203270005 helped draft] the Florida law in Wisconsin2005, to and [http://www3www.jsonlineprwatch.comorg/storyfiles/indexRetreat_from_NRA's_force_St.aspx?id=277059 an estimated $1_Petersburg_Time.8 billion through 2025DOC "stared down legislators as they voted"]to pass it. In many statesJust a few months later, Truth in Sentencing has increased profits for private prison companies like the Hammer [http://www.sourcewatchprwatch.org/indexfiles/NRA_2005.php?title=Corrections_Corporation_of_America Corrections Corporation of Americapng presented the bill], a member of to ALEC's Private Sector board. In 1999Criminal Justice Task Force (now known as the Public Safety and Elections Task Force), then-Rep. Scott Walker also introduced and the NRA [http://hostwww.madisonprwatch.com/ct/news/localorg/crime_and_courts/blogfiles/article_34fb8f50-18ff-11e0-8ee0-001cc4c03286NRA_2005.html two billspng boasted] that would allow private prisons in Wisconsin"[h]er talk was well-received. While those bills did not pass, some inmates were contracted out to private prisons in other states, " The corporations and state legislators on the Task Force -- which was [http://hostweb.archive.org/web/20050810000953/http://www.madisonajc.com/ct/news/localcontent/crime_and_courtsmetro/blog0805/article_44c6e570-1903-11e0-af8e-001cc4c0328608alec.html the Corrections Corporation of America has registered lobbyistschaired] in by Wal-Mart, the state ever since. A former head of Wisconsinnation's prison system who is currently a University largest retailer of Wisconsin Law Professor, Walter Dickey, told American Radio Works it is "shocking" that lawmakers would write sentencing policy with help from long guns -- voted unanimously to approve the bill as an ALEC, a group that gets funding, and supposedly "expertise," from a private prison corporationmodel bill. "I don't know that they know anything about sentencing," he said. "They know how to build prisons, presumably, since that's the business they're Since becoming an ALEC model it has become law in. They don't know anything about probation and parole. They don't know about the development dozens of alternatives. They don't know about how public safety might be created and defended in communities in this state and other states." The Wisconsin state legislature apparently recognized the folly of Truth in Sentencing and rolled back the law this past decade. However, when Scott Walker became governor, he reversed this progress and requested legislation to restore the (ALEC-based) Truth in Sentencing scheme, despite the costs to taxpayers and despite claiming Wisconsin was number of homicides classified as "broke.justifiable" It is unknown whether privatized prisons will soon follow.'''<br> To learn more about this story, click [http://americanradioworkswww.publicradiowashingtonpost.orgcom/featuresnational/corrections/laws1.html here], or [http:stand-your-ground-laws-coincide-with-jump-in-justifiable-homicide-cases/2012/www3.jsonline.com04/story07/indexgIQAS2v51S_story.aspx?id=277059 herehtml has dramatically increased].<br> ----