Prison-industrial complex

The prison-industrial complex refers to interest groups that represent organizations that do business in correctional facilities, such as prison guard unions, construction companies, and surveillance technology vendors, and to the belief that these actors may be more concerned with making profits than actually rehabilitating criminals or reducing crime rates.

Allegedly, this desire for monetary gain has led to the rise of the Prison industry. Writing for "The Atlantic Monthly" in 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." [cite journal| url=http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/98dec/prisons.htm| journal=The Atlantic Monthly| month=December| year=1998| title=The Prison-Industrial Complex| first=Eric| last=Schlosser]

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 powerlessness, the imprisonment of political prisoners, and the elimination of dissent." [ [http://www.criticalresistance.org/index.php?name=what_is_pic Critical Resistance: Index] ]

These views are shared widely by critics of the carceral state, retributive justice, military-industrial complex, the War on Terrorism, the War on Drugs, militarism and Homeland Security.

ee also

*Incarceration in the United States
*List of U.S. state prisons
*Military-industrial complex
*Supermax

References

Media

*Angela Davis, "The Prison Industrial Complex", CD-ROM (Audiobook), AK Press 1999, ISBN 1902593227

External links

* [http://disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=prison-industrial_complex Disinfopedia: prison-industrial complex] - exhaustive overview with links and sources.
* [http://historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/audiocparenti.html Audio of a Christian Parenti talk on understanding and tackling the Prison Industrial Complex]
* [http://engaged-zen.org/articles/Kobutsu-Investing_in_Slavery.html The Prison Industrial Complex in America: Investment in Slavery] — by Rev. Kobutsu Malone
* [http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8289 The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery?] , Vicky Pelaez
* [http://www.criticalresistance.org/index.php?name=what_is_pic Critical resistance website]