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Speculating, but the motives are likely profit. Sessions is anti drugs because there is money to be made in private prisons, where as other parts of the admini

• adventured 9y ago
  There's roughly 6x to 10x more money to be made in government prisons than in private prisons. Sessions is a big government fan, as are most politicians in DC. That government prison complex money goes into the pockets of lobbyists, millions of voters and contributors (including powerful unions), that are employed in/by the government system. Currently ~85%-90% of all prisoners are held in government prisons and jails. There are at least a million people employed in government law enforcement, whose jobs are solely supported by the government's drug war and the government prison complex. Sessions, like Trump, is a very big supporter of law enforcement employees. Sessions is doing it to support those million plus government employees who have been overwhelmingly supportive of the Trump Administration and the pro drug war side. Those million unnecessary government employees represent a hundred billion dollars per year in pockets getting lined between pay and benefits over time. The scale of that puts the private prison complex to shame.
  • wjn0 9y ago
    Agree completely. People are very quick to ascribe the problems associated with the prison industrial complex to the privatization of prisons, but that's only a part of it. Sessions has an ideology (digression: based on his history, I wouldn't be surprised if it was rooted in racism [1]). But politicians, even the most ideological, have been shown to be very easy to sway: be it for money, or power, or something else. In his case, there is absolutely no incentive (financial, political support, or otherwise) to change: his party's base either partially agrees with him, or benefits from the policy stance, exactly like you said. And that is why we get borderline absurd quotes like "good people don't smoke marijuana" (2016) [2]. [1] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-attorney-general-pick-jeff-sessions-nominee-senate-confirmation-hearing-too-racist-a7518726.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trum... [2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/18/trumps-pick-for-attorney-general-good-people-dont-smoke-marijuana https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/18/trump...
• ggg9990 9y ago
  I think you are too quick to ascribe “money” as the only motivation to Jeff Sessions. That guy has been ranting about how marijuana will turn children into demons for the last 30-40 years. He just has a blinding hate for “the kind of people” who smoke marijuana - I do not think that it’s as complicated for him as extracting profit from private prisons.
• aaronbrethorst 9y ago
  > Sessions is anti drugs because there is money to be made in private prisons I hadn't thought about that angle before, and it may very well be likely that he has a vested interest in supporting CoreCivic[1], and the like. But it's worth noting that Jeff Sessions is a racist and drug laws disproportionately affect minorities: https://www.vox.com/2014/7/1/5850830/war-on-drugs-racist-minorities https://www.vox.com/2014/7/1/5850830/war-on-drugs-racist-min... [1] CoreCivic used to be called CCA and they operate private prisons. Also, did some digging and yes he does, but only through mutual funds: https://www.snopes.com/jeff-sessions-private-prisons/ https://www.snopes.com/jeff-sessions-private-prisons/