Prison-industrial complex

From Free net encyclopedia

The prison-industrial complex refers to interest groups that represent organizations that do business in correctional facilities, like prison guard unions, construction companies, and surveillance technology vendors, who become more concerned with making more money than actually rehabilitating criminals or reducing crime rates. Additionally, some prisons provide free or low-cost labor for state or municipal governments as well as jobs for union members, which can be seen as another positive side-effect for building and maintaining a large prison system.

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." [1]