Inside Look At The Prison Industrial Complex

“A set of bureaucratic, political, and economic interests that encourage increased spending on imprisonment, regardless of the actual need. The prison-industrial complex is not a conspiracy, guiding the nation’s criminal-justice policy behind closed doors. It is composed of politicians, both liberal and conservative, who have used the fear of crime to gain votes; impoverished rural areas where prisons have become a cornerstone of economic development; private companies that regard the roughly $35 billion spent each year on corrections not as a burden on American taxpayers but as a lucrative market. An interweaving of private business and government interests. (Aviram

More people have been locked up in the United States than any other country. In the article “Prison Industrial Complex Economics”, it states, “the United States has approximately 6.5 million people under the criminal justice supervision. Incarcerated rate has grown from 176 in 1973 up to 700 in the year of 2000” (Waquant). Incarceration is a big business that feeds into drug violence, corrupted guards, and racism in criminal justice system, taxpayer cost, and racism in the criminal system and through privatization of prisons.

Crime rates are down in America, yet there is an unproportionately large number of Americans incarcerated. This paper will delve into and examine this problem and how it is closely linked to private prisons and the issues surrounding them. While private prisons claim to be cost effective and well-run, evidence has shown that these profit-driven companies ignore ethical consequences by purposefully lengthening prisoners’ sentences, target certain groups for incarceration and maintain despicable living standards for the prisoners; ultimately, these prisons have caused more harm than good for the state.

Over the past few decades, the United States has witnessed a huge surge in the number of individuals in jail and in prison. Evidence suggests the mass imprisonment policy from the last 40 years was a horrible catastrophe. Putting more people in prison not only ruined lives, it disrupted families, prevented ex-prisoners to find housing, to get an education, or even a good job. Regrettably, the United States has a higher percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is increasing exponentially. The expense produced by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. Although people are incarcerated for a number of reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. By researching mass incarceration, I hope to get society to understand that incarcerating an individual not only effects the family, but we will look at the long term consequences on society and how the United States can remain safe and, at the same time, undo much of the damage that results from large-scale imprisonment.

The industrial prison complex has divided America into two groups; those who are oblivious to the industry and prison abolitionists who are advocating for reform or the complete abolition of the industry. With prisons being so integrated in American society, it is hard for oblivious citizens to see the problems with the prison industry. The media uses television shows such as Orange is the New Black and Prison Break to normalize prisons in America. Prison abolitionists want the industrial prison complex abolished for an array of reasons that end in true equality for citizens. The social injustices explained earlier are reason enough to call citizens to action against the industrial prison complex.

Though many Americans are aware that their nation imprisons more of its own citizens than any other country in the world, what much fewer of them are aware of is the increasing number in which those citizens are housed in facilities with little to no government oversight. From 2002 to 2009, the amount of inmates held in private prisons grew thirty-seven percent while the overall number of incarcerated Americans during that same timeframe grew by only fourteen percent (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2010), a statistic that reveals a worrying trend; that of a disproportionate amount of citizens being housed in what has come to be known as the prison-industrial complex, a term used not only for the growing

Name: Lecturer: Course: Date of Submission: Mass incarceration in American Prisons Introduction More than 2.3 million Americans today are prisoners, a population that represents more than a quarter of the number of prisoners in the world. This means that 760 Americans in one hundred thousand are prisoners in America (Detotto and Pulina). The rise in prisoners’ numbers has sharply risen since 1980 with the cost of maintaining the prison going to over four hundred percent within the same period.

The United States is the world’s leader in incarceration. It spends more resources on its prison system than any other nation and has the largest prison population in the world. Between 1980 and 2016, the number of inmates in U.S. state and federal prisons increased from 320,000 to more than 1.5 million. This corresponds to a change in the incarceration rate from 139 to 450 prisoners per 100,000 residents. Most lawmakers tend to believe that incarceration is a necessary construct needed to reform criminals to properly incorporate them into society. They insist imprisonment reduces crime rates through incapacitation and deterrence. Thus, it is not surprising that expenditures on corrections increased as states built new prisons,

Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) is a term we use to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to what are, in actuality, economic, social, and political "problems. Through its reach and impact, the prison industrial complex helps secure the authority of people who get their power through racial, economic and other structural privileges by defending current power distributions. It benefits government and industry, as well as those individuals who already hold power in our society. There are six components I believe contribute to the PIC. The components are criminalization, media, surveillance, policing, court system, and the prisons.

Incarceration is immense in the United States. Since the 1980s, the United States has experienced a massive increase in incarceration. The overall rate has increased from 139 prisoners per hundred thousand US

Prison Industrial Complex is government and industry interest for solving our social, economically, and political problems by policing, imprisonment, or using surveillance. Jail are only used for short-term sentences by local authorities and prison is used for long term sentences by state or federal governments. Any minor thing can lead you into prison, but that should be only where major punishments should be solved. Prison has never been a rehabilitation but a profitable punishment. The two biggest prison companies that own more than a hundred prisons combined are Corrections Corporation of America and The GEO Group. Private companies and state governments make deals that the more inmates they received, the amount of income also increases.

Most of us probably don’t give jail much thought but with a rapid rise in the prison population, we probably should.

Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) is a term we use to depict the interests of government and industry that utilization observation, policing, and detainment as answers for what may be, in fact, monetary, social, and political "issues. Through its range and effect, the jail modern complex secures the power of individuals who get their energy through racial, monetary and other auxiliary benefits by shielding current power conveyances. It benefits government and industry, and in addition those people who as of now hold control in our general public. There are six segments I trust add to the PIC. The segments are criminalization, media, reconnaissance, policing, court framework, and the detainment facilities.

From my understanding, the prison industrial complex (PIC) is a term use to describe the overlapping interests of government and industrial that use surveillance, policing and imprisonment as solution to economic, social and political problem. The PIC helps and maintain the authority of people who get their power though racial, economic and other privileges. When it comes to economic the PIC is known for its contribution to empowering private companies for earning huge profit for private prison, companies who provide prison uniforms, feeding, healthcare etc. for example the prison

However, before we can dive into the dilemmas that the prison industrial complex created we must first define what they are and how did they originate within our country. First, the private prison system is not a new phenomenon. Although the first appearances of these facilities are not the ones we think of today, the private sector’s involvement in incarcerating people emerged in the early eighteenth century. These privately operated facilities, in part, gained popularity because they used the prisoners as laborers, artisans, and other needed occupations in the community. By the mid-nineteenth century, providers constructed the ‘modern’ private