Today's Debtor Prison; Kochs Behind Union Busting

A Modern-Day Debtors’ Prison? Judges Push Back Against the South’s Privatization Wave. In Southern states, small-town courts have outsourced probation management to for-profit companies charging fees out of reach to the country’s poorest residents. Many people end up in jail for nonpayment.

Kathleen Hucks, pictured here, was jailed for nonpayment of fees to Sentinel Offender Services, a private company. Watch her story in part two of the Brave New Films documentary, To Prison for Poverty. (Photo: Brave New Films)

Who Is Behind the National Right to Work Committee and its Anti-Union Crusade? The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (NRTWLDF) is the 501(c)(3) arm of the National Right to Work Committee(NRTWC), a 501(c)(4) organization. Additionally, the National Institute for Labor Relations Research is an affiliated anti-union research shop. Founded nearly 60 years ago, the NRTWC has been a national leader in the effort to destroy public and private sector unions. The NRTWC has deep connections within the national right-wing network led by the Koch brothers. Reed Larson, who led the NRTW groups for over three decades, hails from Wichita, Kansas, the hometown of Charles and David Koch. Larson became an early leader of the radical right-wing John Birch Society in Kansas, which Fred Koch (the father of Charles and David) helped found. Several other founders and early leaders of the NRTWC were members and leaders of the John Birch Society, specifically the Wichita chapter of which Fred Koch was an active member. The groups remain tied to the Kochs. 

Sources: Common Dreams, Truthout.

Paul Brown is a retired neuroscience professor whose primary interests are human rights, overpopulation, mass extinction, global warming, and the military-industrial complex. Links to all his Before It’s News articles are at /contributor/pages/189/210/stories.html.