The Prison Industrial Complex ' Signifies A Criminal Justice System Essay

“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

Traditionally, there have been four justifications for punishment: deterrence, confinement, rehabilitation and retribution. While these methods can be flawed at some point in history they served as primary reasons for the justification of punishment. Recently, there has been an epistemic shift in thinking about punishment where now it is focused on retribution and incarceration. The emphasis on this method has lead to an increase in incarceration and the rise of a prison system. While we acknowledge that there will always be a need for society to punish criminals in order to protect the rights of individuals, however a prison/prison system is not the correct way to handle such problems. Currently the prison system is being used an economic tool for private companies to exploit cheap labor from inmates. Known as the prison-industrial complex private enterprises are now able to build more prisons to “benefit” society and themselves as the prison population grows. Since the 1980’s the growth in prison

The Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) is an organization which over the past few decades has grown tremendously in the United States. This political cartoon showcases how our societies are transitioning from dependence on the Public Education system to the dependence on the Prison Industrial Complex and how the people who are funding these corporate businesses are less focused on bettering of the community but are primarily money hungry. My close analysis of this image reveals how the prison industrial complex negatively affects our communities yet is beneficial to the people and corporations who operate them.

As prisons grow in size, governments look for new methods to aid in cutting costs and increase efficiency. Over the last decade government run institutions have been replaced with privately funded, for-profit prisons. Although it is cheaper for governments to run contract based institutions this mass industrialization of the prison system has seen many issues with corruption, decreases in efficiency and even mistreatment and exploitation of incarcerated individuals. The prison system should remain under government control and in this essay I will discuss the faults and errors of for-profit institutions and why this system should not be overseen by private corporations.

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.

currently has the highest imprisonment rate per capita of any country in the world, and although we have about four percent of the global population, we have twenty-two percent of all prisoners. However, it has not always been this way; as only three decades ago our prison population was one eighth of its current size. This unparalleled growth of the prison system has forced America to create a vast prison industry that has become increasingly reliant on private capital. This prison industrial complex has not only turned imprisonment into a profitable business but also reinforced racial disparities in America. The argument that capitalism in this context undermines our democratic values rests of three key points: Firstly, that drug enforcement is racially biased, secondly that private capital has become enmeshed in incarceration industry and thirdly that prison labor is becoming increasingly connected to the United States Economy.

Over the last few years the hashtag Black Lives Matter has become a hot topic. This organization is trying to bring awareness to the issues that people of color face. They are also trying to bring “real” equality to people of color. Many non-people of color feel like black people are no longer oppressed. I plan to delve into systematic racism and how it is a real issue. I will be looking into the prison industrial complex, and police brutality examining how it relates back to slavery. Many police officers do not face consequences when they use excessive force, on people of color vs non-people of color. Just by looking at the current and past relationship between the police and people of color, needs to be addressed. It seems as if every time you turn around there is a person of color being killed on a daily basis by the police. There are too many people of color losing their lives by the hands of the police while other races are not. This relates to slavery and how slave patrols were used to keep runaway slaves in check. I will look into and how redlining of neighborhoods is a downward spiral as well. Especially when it comes to poverty and education. Even touching on when people use the hashtag all lives matter that you are overlooking/negating the issues that people of color face. All this leads to my research question; why do people of color suffer more from the effects of Systematic Racism than any other Race?

In the beginning of the chapter, Davis introduces us to the term “prison industrial complex”. The prison industrial complex refers to the idea that prisons are filling up due to businesses seeking profit and not because crime was increasing. This term is important because it is a fundamental part of Davis’s argument. The transition of prisons from a government owned

What is the prison industrial complex? In what way does it play in the existence of what Dr. Michelle Alexander calls the New Jim Crow?

“One out of every 31 Americans (7 Million) are in prison, jail, or some other form of correctional supervision. A high incarceration rate in the United States has led to the prison-industrial complex, which has provided jobs and profits to legions of companies and people. The field of corrections is big business.”1 I believe that this fact is the best way in which to start my paper. The main idea of corrections, as the name suggests, is to correct the behavior that has caused an offender to stray from the straight and narrow. However, as our prison population grows and recidivism rates increase we are not only seeing our prison system fail, but we are seeing a new and emerging industry take hold in this country. Increasing prison populations and the number of re-offenders is showing a relatively obvious failure of the current system. In my time as a criminal justice major I have taken a variety of classes on criminal justice, one of the most interesting for me (aside from this class) was restorative justice. In my restorative justice class I was introduced to the idea that the criminal justice system was taking the conflict away from the victim and the community and was focusing too much on punishment and not enough on rehabilitation. I understand that some people feel that restorative justice is too lenient, that by allowing offenders to bypass jail restorative justice gives them a pass and allows them to basically get away with an offense, however restorative

Within this paper, you will find a comprehensive review of the United States prison system, and why it needs to analyzed to better support and reform the people of this country. I plan to persuade the other side (politicians and society) into seeing that the way the prison system is now, is not ethical nor economical and it must change. We have one of the world’s largest prison population, but also a very high rate of recidivism. Recidivism is when the prisoners continuously return to prison without being reformed. They return for the same things that they were doing before. So, this leads us to ask what exactly are we doing wrong? When this happens, we as a nation must continuously pay to house and feed these inmates. The purpose of a prison needs to be examined so we can decide if we really are reforming our inmates, or just continuing a vicious cycle. What is the true purpose of prison besides just holding them in a cell? There must be more we can do for these hopeless members of society.

Throughout the history of civilization, elite members of society have enslaved underprivileged persons for economic exploitation and sociopolitical power to perpetuate a cycle of oppression towards a targeted body of the population. History claims, racism and institutional discrimination was demolished in 1865, however, the prison industrial complex and its implications has transformed slavery, making incarceration susceptible to people of color that reinforce racial oppression for profit.Private prisons thrive on the exploitation of enslaved bodies, for motives strictly leaned for profit and social control. The war on drugs, created and reinforced by the United States government, supplements the prison industry by imprisoning non-violent drug offenders, preferably low-income people of color to sustain the quote of detained bodies. The united states government is notorious for framing issues to portray biased perception to general public. An example includes, how Mass media played a vital role in manipulating the mass population to frame social issues in order trap their support to reinforce motives of the prison system.

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.

What if I told you that prisons in America aren 't built for the main purpose of locking up “criminals” and making them better to re enter society and keeping other citizens safe but for some companies to make profit off of cheap labor? In essence that is the prison industrial complex. How do we define it? A few define it as a term that is used to explain rapid expansion of the US inmate population to the political influence of private prison companies and businesses that supply goods and services to government prison agencies mainly affecting minorities mainly African Americans but to put it simply is that more and more prisons are becoming privatized and getting third party contracts from government agencies instead of the government owned.

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