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Prison Industrial Complex

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3. The Naturalization of the Prison Industrial Complex The United States prison industrial complex was naturalized when incarceration became numerous stratified, racialized and gendered images of who is labeled as criminal and what is considered criminal behavior. The prison industrial complex adoption of imprisonment and policing as a means of punishment and control through pop culture, education, society, family, institutions, and cognitive thought processes. It is a constant recognition of the consequences manufactured from deviance but also serves as a buttress to what is considered lawful justice. As a society, we hold an amount of responsibility in perpetuating the ideologies succumbed in the prison industrial complex. Imprisonment …show more content…

These variations of discrimination are the building blocks as to who considered criminal and how they are treated when it comes to the law. Government officials pass numerous laws pertaining to crime and imprisonment but never disclose the details regarding the economic factors. Several businesses, directly or indirectly connected to the prison industrial complex, continue to profit from the increase in inmate population. The prison corporation itself is able to make an even greater profit by exploiting inmates to slave-like labor for little to no compensation. This phenomenon is justified through the idea that the “criminal” is getting what they deserve as a way to recompense for their harm against …show more content…

It is carried out through power within institutions like the workplace, schools, families, jails, prisons, and religious establishments. Following a set of rules, whether written or oral, allows us to feel a sense of morality and security. Policing and surveillance, in prisons and everyday life, makes it appear as if we in a safer society. Likewise, we actively consent to physical and electronic observing, internment and controlling in our daily rituals and as a main staple within the prison industrial complex. ECONOMICS The amount of rapid growth in inmate population is almost as startling as the profit made from the prison industrial complex itself. Although it has substantial political power, the prison industrial complex consists of private companies and corporations. The key economic components revolved around the prison industrial complex are the use of inmates as basically free labor and the notion that more prisons indicate more jobs. As Angela Davis illuminated, the focus is on making a profit through punishment rather than rehabilitating individuals and providing them with services to help reduce the rates of crime.

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