The Prison-Industrial Complex
Report by Shenin Mesdaghi
Sources: Angela Davis, Eve Goldberg, and Linda Evans
Prison and Complexity?
• Prison network = complex and dynamic system
– Involves multiple agents that interact with one other
 over time, there is increasing complexity as prisons
expand and become more corporate -- “Prison
Industrial Complex” (PIC)
• PIC involves different levels of interaction:
– government / political system
– economic system
– social / cultural system
General Info
• After Cold War, shift from military spending
(communist threat) to prison spending (war on
drugs)
• news/media and politicians depict crime as urgent
problem  public votes for more crime control
– justifies huge govt. spending on prisons w/out public
complaint
• more prisons = seen as “solution” to crime and
other social problems
General Info
• Crime rate , while….
– dramatic increase in incarcerated pop (113%
increase btw. 1985-1995 -- 1995 BJS Bulletin) and
– major Federal, State, Local Prison expansion
continues
• Why this continuous expansion?
– Prison = link public, business, and govt. interests of
social control and profit
• As capital and labor relations change, prison, as an emerging
business, becomes central to US economy
PIC: Corporate Nature of Prison
Network
• Building and maintaining prisons = “big business”
– many companies/industries profit
– some required to give portion of profits to govt.
• Increasingly, inmates provide cheap labor market
for many other companies
– prisoners are paid below min. wages, companies profit
• change labor market by hiring prisoners, and laying off others
– sweatshop conditions at times
• prisoners can’t complain to media or govt. b/ have no rights
PIC: Corporate Nature of Prison
Network
• private prison corporations emerge and greatly
increase -- contract with govt. to keep costs low
– punishment industry for pure profit, not social concern
– investors benefit from prison bonds and stocks
• continue to vote for more prison space
• Prison = leading rural growth industry
– rural area = economic decline b/ traditional agriculture
pushed out by agribusiness  unemployment
– want prison facilities b/ source of secure jobs and
revenues
Socio-Political-Economic Nature
of Prison Network
• Inmates = raw material for this prison industry
• Inmates = mostly unemployed, poor, illiterate
minorities
– blacks/latinos = fastest growing -- 70% of inmate pop
• # of women also increasing
– increasing arrests for non-violent crimes
• mainly drugs and robbery due to economic need, poverty
• PIC need continuous inmate-supply for expansion
– relies on feedback mechanism and racism
Socio-Political-Economic Nature
of Prison Network
• 1960s-80s -- govt. (CIA) secretly involved in foreign
drug trade with Vietnam and Nicaragua
 dumped lots of drugs into US poor, black communities
• 1970s-80s -- many manufacturing companies moved
abroad for cheaper labor markets
 lots of black, semi-skilled workers lost jobs
– unemployment  poverty, stealing, and drug use
• mid-1980s -- Reagan’s “War on Drugs”
– arrests/targets mainly poor urban black communities for criminals
– though whites and blacks used ~ same amt. of drugs
– also, arrest many foreign drug smugglers
Socio-Political-Economic Nature
of Prison Network
• Prison: with capitalist interest, enforces structural
racism and class bias
• Increased prison spending cuts money for other
social programs (ex. welfare), that originally aided
poor urban areas
– as a result, the poor have less work, school aid, and
drug-treatment services available
– resort to stealing, drug use, and other crimes
– feedback mechanism that increases inmate pop.
PIC -- Eventual Decline or
Collapse?
• Eventually threshold will be reached when can’t
expand prisons any longer: signs….
– prison overcrowding
– inmates rioting
– lack of financial resources to manage private prisons
• As prisons expand, more people and publications
rally against PIC
– might effect public opinion, votes?
PIC -- Eventual Decline or
Collapse?
• Current large incarcerated pop means more
inmates released later  more crime later?
– According to L.A. Times, national crime rate increased
by 1% from previous year, and in certain parts of states
(like CA) by 12%, due to increase release of prisoners
who again commit crimes
• Since prison does not address/solve root causes of
crime (poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, racism)
especially with social service money cut b/ of it
– only temporary holding, until released later
That’s All Folks