Prison Industry Complex in America
Summary
TLDRThe video script delves into the U.S. prison industrial complex, highlighting the nation's high incarceration rates driven by nonviolent drug offenses and the profit-driven nature of private prisons. It discusses the historical roots of privatization, the impact on communities reliant on prisons for economic stability, and the challenges faced by the prisoner re-entry industry. The script also addresses racial disparities in incarceration, the influence of lobbying on policy, and the need for a more humane and effective criminal justice system.
Takeaways
- 🌐 The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, largely due to the privatization of prisons and the high rate of imprisonment for nonviolent drug offenses.
- 🏭 The Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) is working to reverse the trend of mass incarceration and has been gathering data on the prison system, highlighting the correlation between privatization and increased prison populations.
- 💰 Privatization of prisons, driven by profit motives, has led to communities becoming economically dependent on local prisons, perpetuating and exploiting social inequalities.
- 📈 The number of private prisons has increased, with companies like Correctional Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group being major providers, focusing on profit over the welfare of inmates.
- 🔄 The history of private prisons dates back to convict leasing, a form of forced labor that emerged after the abolition of slavery, and has evolved into the current system of for-profit incarceration.
- 🏛️ Limiting the number of inmates and facilities for private prisons could be a starting point for policy changes aimed at reducing the costs and negative impacts of the prison industry.
- 🤝 Re-entry programs for formerly incarcerated individuals are crucial, but the Prisoner Re-entry Industry (PRI) has been criticized for prioritizing profits over effective reintegration into society.
- 🏢 The PRI industry, including both for-profit and nonprofit entities, relies on the continuous cycle of incarceration and re-entry, often failing to provide adequate support for successful reintegration.
- 📊 High rates of recidivism are linked to the failure of re-entry programs to effectively prepare individuals for life outside of prison, with many returning to prison for violating conditions of release rather than new convictions.
- 🌐 Racial and economic disparities are evident in the prison system, with African-American men being disproportionately incarcerated and facing greater challenges in accessing legal representation and maintaining family and work relationships.
Q & A
What is the term used to describe the industry of privatized prisons in the United States?
-The term used is the 'prison industrial complex'.
What is the current incarceration rate of the United States according to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics?
-The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world.
What is the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) and what is its goal?
-The PPI is a group created to reverse the trend of extreme growth in the prison population and has been recording this growth and gathering data on the prison system for the last decade.
What percentage of the prison population is there for non-violent crimes, and what is the common reason for this?
-75% of the inmates are there for non-violent crimes, often related to the possession of illegal drugs, which is argued to be directly correlated to the privatization of American prisons.
How do private prisons differ from public ones in terms of their end goal?
-Private prisons differ from public ones in that they have the end goal of making a profit.
What is one of the negative impacts of private prisons on communities?
-Private prisons can lead to entire communities becoming dependent on local prisons for economic substance, which in turn exploits social inequalities.
What is the history of private prisons in the United States, and how did it start?
-The history of private prisons started with 'convict leasing' at the end of slavery in the United States, where facilities would lease convicts to plantation or factory owners for forced labor.
Which are the two primary private prison providers in the United States?
-The two primary private prison providers are the Correctional Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group.
What is the Prisoner Re-entry Industry (PRI), and how does it relate to the prison industrial complex?
-The PRI is an industry that focuses on programs and services for the formerly incarcerated, and it is considered a part of the social control industrial complex, similar to the prison industrial complex.
What is the main concern regarding the oversight of re-entry programs for the formerly incarcerated?
-The main concern is that there is very little oversight over these programs, which may not be effectively linking the formerly incarcerated with the social capital and human skills necessary for successful reintegration.
What challenges do formerly incarcerated individuals face when trying to reintegrate into society, according to the script?
-Challenges include unemployment, lack of access to education due to inability to receive Pell grants, displacement or homelessness due to public housing rules, and the stigma of having a conviction which affects job prospects and social acceptance.
Outlines
🏭 The Prison Industrial Complex and Incarceration Rates
This paragraph discusses the rise of the prison industrial complex in the United States, which is a network of private prisons that contribute to the country's high incarceration rate. It highlights the link between mass imprisonment for nonviolent drug offenses, rapid poverty, and the political influence of private prison industries that profit from inmate labor. The paragraph introduces Susan Madis, the host of the show, and Anthony Thompson, a professor at NYU, who explains the different ways prisons can be privatized, including the sale of state prisons to corporations like the Correctional Corporation of America (CCA). Thompson also touches on the history of private prisons, starting from convict leasing post-slavery to the modern-day profit-driven prison system.
🛑 The Prisoner Re-entry Industry and Social Control
The second paragraph delves into the prisoner re-entry industry (PRI), which is part of the broader social control industrial complex. It describes the PRI as a collection of institutions and organizations that profit from services aimed at reintegrating former prisoners back into society, often at the expense of taxpayers. Professor Douglas Tomkins from John J College of Criminal Justice discusses the challenges faced by the re-entry industry, including the lack of effective programs to link former inmates with social capital and human skills necessary for successful reintegration. The paragraph also addresses the issue of racial discrimination in the criminal justice system, noting that African-American men are significantly more likely to be incarcerated than their white counterparts.
🤝 The Challenges of Re-entry and Economic Impacts
This paragraph explores the difficulties faced by individuals re-entering society after incarceration, including scheduling conflicts between work and mandatory treatment programs, as well as the lack of oversight in the organizations providing these services. It also discusses the economic impacts of private prisons on rural communities, which have been promised income generation through the establishment of prisons but have often been left economically vulnerable when these facilities fail to meet expectations. The paragraph touches on the political implications of private prisons, including their lobbying efforts to influence criminal justice policies and the potential for targeting minority groups to maintain prison populations.
🚑 Inadequate Healthcare and Inhumane Treatment in Prisons
The fourth paragraph focuses on the inadequate healthcare provided to incarcerated individuals, including the lack of attention to medical, dental, and mental health issues, as well as substance abuse treatment. It discusses the inhumane treatment of prisoners, such as physical and emotional brutality, and the challenges faced by the Correctional Association in advocating for a more humane criminal justice system. The paragraph also addresses the issue of sexual assault in prisons and the lack of educational and vocational training opportunities for prisoners, which are crucial for successful reintegration into society.
🏡 Re-entry Barriers and the Disproportionate Impact on the Underprivileged
The final paragraph examines the barriers faced by individuals trying to reintegrate into society after prison, such as the inability to access public housing, limited job opportunities due to felony convictions, and the ineligibility for Pell grants which hinder education prospects. It also discusses the challenges of maintaining family ties due to the remote locations of many facilities, particularly for low-income families. The paragraph emphasizes the disproportionate impact of the prison system on people of color and the economically disadvantaged, and it concludes with insights from individuals who have experienced re-entry, suggesting that decriminalization of certain offenses and focusing on the relationship between poverty and crime could be beneficial approaches to tackling the issue.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Prison Industrial Complex
💡Incarceration Rate
💡Nonviolent Drug Offenses
💡Privatization
💡Inmate Labor
💡Sentencing Reform
💡Prisoner Re-entry Industry
💡Social Control
💡Racial Discrimination
💡Oversight
💡Reintegration
Highlights
The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, driven by the privatization of prisons and increasing rates of non-violent crime incarcerations.
The prison population in the United States has risen 50% since 1991, with 75% of inmates incarcerated for non-violent crimes such as drug possession.
The privatization of prisons, known as the prison industrial complex, has resulted in entire communities becoming economically dependent on local prisons.
In 2011, Ohio sold a state prison to the Correctional Corporation of America (CCA), one of the two major private prison providers in the U.S.
Historically, private prisons have roots in convict leasing post-slavery, where convicts were leased out to plantation and factory owners for labor.
Between the 1970s and 2000s, there was a significant increase in privatization of prisons, leading to the development of major private prison companies like CCA and GEO Group.
Private prisons often have lower standards for training and staffing, resulting in poorer conditions and services for inmates.
Private prison companies lobby extensively to influence laws and policies that increase incarceration rates, particularly affecting minority groups.
The prisoner re-entry industry (PRI) has also become a profitable sector, with for-profit and non-profit entities providing services that may not effectively support reintegration.
Re-entry programs often fail to adequately prepare formerly incarcerated individuals for employment, leading to high unemployment rates among parolees.
Formerly incarcerated individuals face numerous barriers to reintegration, including restrictions on housing, employment, and access to education.
The Correctional Association of New York advocates for better prison conditions and re-entry support, emphasizing the importance of maintaining family and community ties during incarceration.
Many rural communities turned to private prisons as an economic solution during the 2008 downturn, but some have faced financial challenges when prisons failed to deliver promised benefits.
Private prisons profit from low-wage inmate labor, and their growth has been associated with efforts to influence legislation that increases incarceration rates.
Medical care and mental health treatment in prisons are often inadequate, with substance abuse and mental health issues frequently going untreated.
Educational and vocational training opportunities in prisons are limited, hindering the ability of formerly incarcerated individuals to reintegrate successfully into society.
Transcripts
the ever growing industry of privatized
prisons generally referred to as the
prison industrial complex and the
skyrocketing rate of incarceration has
left the united states with the highest
incarceration rate in the world the
issue ties together many social aspects
such as the connection between the
massive rate of imprisonment for
nonviolent drug use rampid poverty and
the growing political influence of
private prison industries that thrive on
inmate population as cheap forms of
Labor so what's an incarcerated criminal
worth what companies run these prisons
and how and what impact does the growing
industry of private prisons have on
communities that are now relying on
these prisons as their only economic
basis Lots talk about the answers to
those questions and more on today's
inside
out
hello and welcome to the show I'm Susan
madis according to the US Bureau of
Justice statistics the United States has
the highest incarceration rate in the
world the prison policy initiative also
called ppi is a group created to reverse
this trend and has been recording this
extreme growth of the prison population
and Gathering data on the prison system
for the last decade since 1991 the
prison population has risen 50% 75% of
the inmates are there for non-violent
crimes like possession of illegal drugs
the PPI and others argue that this is
directly correlated to the privatization
of American prisons known as the prison
industrial complex these private prisons
unlike public ones have the end goal of
making a profit today this has resulted
in entire communities dependent upon
local prisons for economic substance
that in turn perpetrate and exploit
social
inequalities I recently sat down with
Anthony Thompson he is a professor at
NYU and the author of the book releasing
prisoners redeeming communities re-entry
race and politics here's what he had to
say when you talk about prisons being
privatized private prisons occur in a
couple of different ways in 2011 we saw
for example the state of Ohio sell a
prison to Correctional Corporation of
America CCA which is one of the two big
private prison providers that's a bit
unusual um privatization really has um
private prison authorities building
facilities in communities usually rural
communities or agreeing in their
existing facilities to take out ofate
prisoners and
so you you more I think you focus on the
number of both civil and criminal
detainees so for example we see the
number of immigration detainees
increasing in private prisons it's about
16,000 this year um and depending on
Whose study you believe there's about
anywhere from 170 to 200,000 uh
individuals Serv serving time in private
prisons the history of private prisons
started with what was called Comic
leasing historically private prisons
were part of something called convict
leasing at the end of slavery in the
United States you had these huge
plantations that still needed workers
but slavery was outlawed and so what
would happen is facilities in the south
in particular would engage in convict
leasing they would lease large numbers
of convicts to plantation owners um to
factory owners and that forced labor
essentially was the beginning of
privatization of the corrections process
then you saw a bit of a Hiatus and then
in the huge jump and incarceration
between the 70s and the year 2000 um we
saw an increase in um privatization of
Prisons you saw the development of the
CCA the correctional um Corporation of
America and Geo which is at one point
the wacken hunt group those are the two
primary uh prison private prison
providers in the United States there are
others but those are the kind of the big
numbers with so much money being spent
on prisons each year what can be done to
reduce the costs of this industry we are
essentially kicking the can down the
road in terms of policy decisions on
sentencing reform on other things so I
think that that um limiting the number
of inmates that a particular
jurisdiction can send or limiting the
number of facilities that can be built
by private prisons might be a start but
I think we need to rethink Corrections
more globally um than simply the private
prisons piece while the privatization of
the prison system has proved to be big
business so has an industry less talked
about which is the prisoner re-entry
industry or the PRI according to my next
guest it has become a major part of the
social control industrial complex as
with the prison industrial complex the
PRI is not just a collection of
Institutions organizations and interest
groups both public and private it is
also a state of mind Professor Douglas
Tomkins teaches at the sociology
department at John J College of Criminal
Justice he has done extensive research
into the culture of violence within the
prison community and the relationship
between institutional social control
policies and prisoner
re-entry according to Professor Tomkins
developing and facilitating programs and
services for the formerly incarcerated
have become a huge cash C producing
profits for the PRI at the expense of
the taxpayer while doing little to link
the formerly incarcerated person to the
Social Capital and human skills
necessary to become a citizen re-entry
for me is a period of post- prison
supervision you're still under the
direction of the Criminal Justice System
I think that most people when they think
re-entry they thinking reintegration a
person leaving prison rejoining their
Community their family having a job
becoming a law-abiding citizen within
the community a contributing member of
the Community uh re-entry for me again
is post prison supervision and if you
look at the data the suggestion is that
most people are going back to prison uh
for violating uh conditions of release 2
to one sometimes 3 to one going back to
prison for violating conditions of
release versus uh getting a new
conviction the
industry uh consists of for-profit
nonprofit nonprofit for-profit inter
entities who provide services for
persons uh coming out of prison
um the industry now relies upon the
formally incarcerated person and to be
honest members of their family is the
cash cow uh the raw material that runs
the engine of the industry um you have
to have a client to serve to service to
exist uh if we were to look you would
find a huge increase in the number of
entities uh organizations that are now
providing services for for incarcerated
people Tomkins Drew much of his research
on the re-entry industry from the prison
industrial complex when you talk about
private prisons uh it is private it is
for profit uh profit is the main
goal uh if you go into those facilities
you'll find that uh you have under
trained understaffed uh uh prison um
staff uh you find that the services
afforded uh prisoners are not the same
because again it's for profit okay uh
you'll find that you have uh levels of
conflict uh Within These facilities it's
for profit um and I question if being
for profit if they're in the position to
really provide the services that we as
taxpayers expect from Correctional
agencies Tomkins notes that one of the
important end goals of these programs
should be to create employment
opportunities for the formerly
incarcerated and Empower them to access
the necessary resources afforded to all
citizens however that's not the case uh
for example in the state of New York um
in 2009
65% of those persons on parole were
unemployed 65
5% uh less than 15% were employed
fulltime making more than minimum wage
now that concerns me uh it concerns me
because we have again a list of
organizations that suggest that they're
in the business
of positioning persons coming out of
prison to be in a position to get a job
right but when we look at the data 65%
unemployed in New York state I I
question if these organizations re-entry
type organizations are actually doing
their job so what kind of oversight is
there in these organizations there
really isn't any oversight uh many of
the people that I've interviewed uh most
persons coming out of prison are
required to do drug treatment and anger
management regardless of the conditions
of their conviction meaning no violence
no drugs but you're still required to do
those types of training much of that
training uh treatment is being provided
by private entities now here's an
example of of the overall problem an
individual uh many of the individuals
I've interviewed would say uh I had the
opportunity to get a job but the work
schedule conflicted with my treatment
schedule so I went to my parole officer
and asked if I could have my treatment
schedule reworked so that I could do
treatment and work the parole officer's
normal response is you have to work that
out with your treatment coordinator you
go to the treatment organization and
those organizations will say to you um
no don't think so you need to be here
this is the condition of your release
and if you don't show up uh you know you
may be violated these are for-profit
entities these are
organizations uh who are making a profit
providing the services according to the
Pew research center of the 2.6 million
Americans who are incarcerated 1 million
or 43% are African-American men
African-American men are 7 to eight
times more likely to go to prison than
their white counterparts nearly one in
three africanamerican men will be
incarcerated during their lifetime when
you talk about racial discrimination uh
that includes uh the starting point not
being in a position to hire an
attorney uh not being in a position to
make bond individuals who are in a
position to make bond to be released
from jail pending their trial are often
in a position a better position to maybe
uh beat their case win uh a fair trial
so to speak um to maintain their family
relationship the work
relationship uh race is it about race of
course is about race this is United
States of America okay of course race
plays a role but but it's also about
class so to what extent do these private
prisons work toward a profit prison
policy initiative shows that these
prisons exploit prisoners who work well
below minimum wage not only that these
prisons often feed local economies
according to the American civil
liberties Union this incentive for
prison growth lends itself for lobbying
to change laws to get more prisoners
that targets minority groups and keeps
building up prison populations so a
number of Rural communities as the
downturn occurred in 2008 um began to
gravitate toward private prisons um as a
way to generate income the promise was
build a prison will bring uh inmat from
out of the area and will fill your
facilities and and some of those were
successful Arizona's had some success
with that in Texas there are a number of
communities though when you look at a
place like Littlefield Texas or Harden
Montana that created a bond to build a
facility you know Littlefield Texas I
think spent somewhere in the
neighborhood of $9 million and had a
bond um after a year that private prison
went out of business they were stuck
with the bond um in Montana hard Montana
the sound defaulted on the bonds because
they never actually were able to fill
the prison um so a lot of these rural
communities were left kind of in the
Lurch economically um but there have
been some successes and and in those
communities the danger is when you have
a guarant number of beds by the private
prison right and so you have some
jurisdictions where either the private
prison the as crime rates fell people
weren't going to be sent to that prison
and the threat of lawsuits for example
you know in Arizona CCA threatened to
sue one Community for not sending enough
prisoners even though there were
problems with Escapes in Arizona um so I
think that there's there those kinds of
economic impacts however there are
political implications as well private
prison spend an enormous amount of money
lobbying state government and federal
government officials and it's one of the
intersections of our Democratic process
it's uncomfortable because we have a
very public function Corrections and yet
we see the impact of lobbying dollars on
Corrections decisions and the ability to
create private prison beds and private
prison facilities even the federal
government um is doing a fair amount of
business with private prisons around
immigration detention now and that looks
to be the growth market for private
prisons founded in 1844 the correctional
Association is an independent nonprofit
organization that advocates for a more
Humane and effective Criminal Justice
System Sophia Elijah is executive
director of the correctional Association
of New York the ca Works to build
communities most negatively affected by
criminal justice policy it is the only
private organization in New York with
unrestricted access to prisons while New
York state does not have any private
private prisons the ca has found that
prisons often ignore people's medical
and mental health problems and leave
their substance abuse problems untreated
during the time of incarceration and
then there is the issue of inhumane
treatment in the facilities well you
know throughout the Country Medical Care
Health Care for people who are
incarcerated is abysmal with few
exceptions and New York is is no
different and part of this is because of
the econom
and so there's not enough dollars that
are being spent to provide people with
adequate Medical Care Dental Care is
absolutely abysmal people who have
substance abuse treatment issues are
being treated kind of in a cookie cutter
approach so that it's a one size fits
all no matter how old or long someone
has had an addiction problem and so we
have found that this is an ongoing
problem in addition we found major
problems with respect to the treatment
of the mentally ill there's a
disproportionate number of people who
have mental illness um who are
incarcerated in large measure this is
because um several decades ago we closed
a number of mental health facilities and
therefore that population not getting
the kind of treatment that it needed in
the community found itself intersecting
with the criminal justice system more
often than not and so the um the type of
care available and Treatment available
for those who are mentally ill is
lacking throughout the system despite
the the best efforts of um Department of
Corrections and Community Supervision
and the office of mental health aside
from the issue of medical care abuse and
the inhumane treatment of the prisoners
have also become a cause for concern you
know we are constantly reminded through
letters and through our visits of just
brutality physical brutality emotional
brutality verbal harassment and
brutality that is rampant throughout the
system there's also a problem of sexual
assault in the New York State system
that has come to the attention of the
federal um authorities and we've been
working on on that we're also concerned
about opportunities for educational and
vocational training so that people have
an um the ability to be contributing
members of society when they return home
and then certainly there's the whole
stigma of having a conviction then that
gets in the way of being able to get a
job to get financial aid to get housing
thereby making it more difficult for
someone to successfully reintegrate into
society in the last decade New York has
downsized the number of public prisons
and crime rates have dropped
significantly however on the national
front the private prison industry has
been on the rise privatization of
Prisons is a major problem throughout
the country so the the majority of the
increase in prison building over the
past decade or so has been with private
prisons and not federal and state run
prisons and the the profit margin is
what drives private prisons and the cost
cutting measures to increase profits all
come on the backs of those who are
employed in the facilities and those who
are incarcerated in the facilities the
correctional Association notes on its
website that prisoner re-entry should
begin the moment someone enters a prison
when someone first is incarcerated there
should be a major effort to involve
their family members and their loved
ones in their re-entry process so that
when someone comes home they're not
strangers to their families or to their
communities and this the strengthening
of family ties and Community ties has
occurred during that period of time that
they're incarcerated so when they come
home the people that they're going to to
depend on for support have a better
understanding of what that experience
has been and how they can be the most
supportive um foundation for the person
coming home it also provides the
formally incarcerated person with a
feeling of acceptance as opposed to a
feeling of rejection which is the system
that we have now unfortunately most of
our re-entry programs that involve um
the family start about 6 months before
someone is going to come home and that's
just not enough while the amilies often
try to make the efforts to stay in
contact with the members that have been
incarcerated that itself has its
challenges notably for low-income
families most of the facilities are
located in remote areas of New York
State the majority of the population
that's incarcerated comes from New York
City and the majority of the facilities
are in Upstate New York so just the cost
of the travel to those places is very
very challenging in the prison system
has a disproportionate impact on people
of color and poorer people and so the
challenge of being able to maintain ties
and to be able to visit is increased
because of the economics of trying to
travel to these remote places Logistics
play hand inhand with collateral
consequences once the person
incarcerated returns home if someone has
a felony conviction they cannot have
public housing if they come back home to
a family that is living in public
housing that family will lose their
housing if that formally incarcerated
person returns home so you're displacing
families or you're rendering the person
who's coming home homeless because they
can't go back to that public housing
there's many jobs that a person cannot
qualify for if they have a felony
conviction thereby um compromising their
ability to contribute to the Family
Support so and then there's the problem
of pel Grants people who are incarc
cannot receive pel grants for towards
their education and it's unfor most
unfortunate because it's been shown that
education is one of the key factors to
successfully re-entering into society so
if you can't get an education because
you can't afford it the likelihood that
you're going to successfully reenter is
greatly reduced we took to the streets
to see what some people had to say about
our topic of discussion today which for
me it was hard because I came out from
prison and I had nowhere to come out to
so you know that's a different type of
way of coming out homeless but you know
if you put effort into doing the things
that you feel you need to do for
yourself eventually I went to a halfway
house I didn't go to a shelter I I
refuseed to go to shelter I got help and
went to a halfway house anyway you can
tackle the problem in terms of
decriminalizing certain uh things uh
certain uh actions or
offenses uh it could be helpful uh and I
think uh that's not a bad way to go and
it's a good start uh you know it's such
a large problem that uh even if you're
able to take on one issue and just like
use that and just like really focus on
that I think a large of it a large part
of it is also the relationship between
poverty uh the economics of poverty and
crime that's all the time we have for
today's show thank you for staying with
us and watching remember you can always
send me your emails to inside out at sus
modis.com I'm always looking forward to
them you can also follow me on Twitter
for latest updates and discussions until
next week in another show
goodbye
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