Fantastic scoop. This should be huge national news. This is a slam-dunk case that special interests in the booming private prison industry drove the passage of Arizona's new immigration law.

This is good journalism. I am personally aware of ALEC, which is a competitive organization of the National Conference of State Legislators. In the oral article they admit it is a meeting place between conservative legislators and large companies. Private prisons are simply wrong care of those in prison by for profit groups is less and costs more and the companies make huge profits.

This story is a very well organized piece that clearly presents evidence, provided in a large part by the people directly involved, of private interests pushing legislation. It makes sense that there would be an enormous increase in prisoners thanks to the passing of law that would send undocumented immigrants directly to jail as soon as they are discovered by law enforcement and the story highlights how the benefit to companies that run prisons is far from coincidental. One of the most convincing parts of this story is the fact that the quotes provided are largely from the people who pushed the legislation and stand to benefit from it and they do a good job of exposing themselves. Of course they don't see this as exposing ... More »

Journalism...

A strong and terrifying outline of the influences on legislation, well outlined with graphic presentation. Would be interesting to hear more about the specific evidence found in the documents.

After reading this article, it explained an average understanding to the complexities of the issue concerning the controversial Arizona Immigration law. It went into depth about how the immigration law was being overlooked by various politicians. Some people, not politicians, but prison officials are also involved with deciding what’s next with the law. Huh!? Also after reading this article, it brought up a few questions and concerns. I wondered about what the politicians are really doing for this country and doing it honestly instead of focusing their attention on the money, which is common among many working Americans today. This law obviously brought up an outrage among many people and protesters. It impacts the public ... More »

Great piece of investigative journalism that brings to light that the Arizonan Immigration Law may not have the righteous intentions that some think. Laura Sullivan writes a well-sourced, enterprising piece of investigative journalism, with sources varying from State records to members of ALEC. Its a good piece of journalism because it causes the reader to rethink the legislation, and the fact that the law may simply be a product of special interest for prison companies is definitely something not see as of yet.

The author did a great job compiling evidence and facts about the Arizona Immigration Law and how it came to be. It has a lot of depth and showed a the big picture of the debate. However, the article did seem a little one sided in favor of those against the Immigration Law. Even though the story was one-sided the author did have a quote from someone who wanted the law to pass. I also thought that the author found great sources and had a number of them which made the story more credible and gave more information.

This provides a new, and deeply revealing angle, on a widely reported story that has been missing this crucial piece. A larger context is that the prison lobby has for years been contributing to the budget woes of a neighboring state, California.

Disturbing. So you know it's good journalism. The news frame for this story seems to be focusing on the personal responsability of individuals, government, and the private sector, all of which have been caught with their red hands tampering with human rights.

This opinion piece did not explain the complexities of the issue. It just spoke about at the way the Arizona law was planned out. It was very interesting to know who, what, where, and how the law came about. The fault lines in this were mainly class, I think, because the people that were spoken about in this piece were of the high, rich, white class in society, people who owned large corporation with a lot of money. I think that this piece is actually very important because of the content. It is important to know how a law has come about.

This piece primarily focuses on responsible capitalism, which is the belief that businesses should not make unreasonable profits and business officials are expected to be honest and efficient. The story begins with small town pastoral setting where we first learn of the deal to open immigrant prisons. The author uses good sources, as well as quotes from officials, to highlight the cultural value of responsible capitalism. While this report has a indirect focus on racial fault lines (Immigration bill), it also borders on Age and Class fault lines. For the most part, this story is centered around the wealthy state officials and business owners that made up the immigration bill.

This is a decent type article but didn't seem very professional and a very good story. It was interesting but didn't seem very professional and well written. Using the Herbert Gans' Cultural Values: geography, race, gender, class, and age. The geography of this story is Arizona. Race is illegal immigrants in the United States which consist of multiple ethnicities, but primarily alot of hispanics. Gender is both male and female immigrants. Class is upper and lower class, but this story makes it seem like more lower class. Age is all ages.