Prison-industrial complex
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The term prison-industrial complex refers to all of the businesses and organizations involved in the construction, operation, and promotion of correctional facilities and the services they provide. Such groups include private corrections companies, corporations that contract prison labor, construction companies, surveillance technology vendors, and the lobbyists and interest groups that plurally represent them.
The term often implies a network of actors who are motivated by making profit rather than solely by punishing or rehabilitating criminals or reducing crime rates. Proponents of this view believe that the desire for monetary gain has led to the growth of the prison industry and the number of incarcerated individuals. These views are often shared by people who fear or condemn excessive use of power by government, particularly when related to law enforcement and military affairs.
The Prison Industrial Complex also includes Schools (http://www.FiveKeysCharter.Org) who serve prisons and many other private contractors who provide Restorative Justice programs to inmates during incarceration and post-release.
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[edit] Criticism of the Prison Industry
On December 1998, Eric Schlosser said that "The 'prison-industrial complex' is not only a set of interest groups and institutions; it is also a state of mind. The lure of big money is corrupting the nation's criminal-justice system, replacing notions of safety and public service with a drive for higher profits. The eagerness of elected officials to pass tough-on-crime legislation — combined with their unwillingness to disclose the external and social costs of these laws — has encouraged all sorts of financial improprieties."[1]
[edit] Critical Resistance
Critical Resistance, a political interest group that seeks to abolish the prison industrial complex, states that, "The prison industrial complex (PIC) is a complicated system situated at the intersection of governmental and private interests that uses prisons as a solution to social, political, and economic problems. The PIC depends upon the oppressive systems of racism, classism, sexism, and homophobia. It includes human rights violations, the death penalty, industry and labor issues, policing, courts, media, community powerless, the imprisonment of political prisoners. ."[2]
[edit] See also
- Incarceration in the United States
- List of U.S. state prisons
- Carceral state
- Militarism
- Retributive justice
- Military-industrial complex
- Corrections Corporation of America
- War on Terrorism
- War on Drugs
- Homeland Security
- Police state
- Federal Prison
[edit] Media
- Angela Davis, The Prison Industrial Complex, CD-ROM (Audiobook), AK Press 1999, ISBN 1902593227
[edit] References
- ^ Schlosser, Eric (December 1998). "The Prison-Industrial Complex". The Atlantic Monthly. http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/98dec/prisons.htm.
- ^ Critical Resistance: Index
[edit] External links
- Jailhouse Bloc: The real reason law-and-order types love mandatory-minimum sentencing? It's money in their pockets - by Harvey Silverglate and Kyle Smeallie, The Boston Phoenix, December 9, 2008
- Disinfopedia: prison-industrial complex - exhaustive overview with links and sources.
- Audio of a Christian Parenti talk on understanding and tackling the Prison Industrial Complex
- The Prison Industrial Complex in America: Investment in Slavery — by Rev. Kobutsu Malone
- The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery?, Vicky Pelaez
- Critical resistance website
