I was first introduced to this topic by my sister during my second semester of senior year in high school. Then, the topic was also discussed in my African American Politics and Culture class. And AGAIN, in my Sociology class this semester. I've been fortunate to have encountered this subject even just within my first year of college. I don't care if someone's a biology, chemistry, architecture, art, or music major, I think people are deprived of their education if they've never learned about the Prison Industrial Complex sometime in their college career. I don't know why I feel so strongly about this. Maybe because I was just so bothered by this fact when I finally understood more of it this semester. I feel like it's my obligation to inform others, to spread awareness. It's probably the only thing I can do right now. So this is why I'm writing this on a Saturday morning (not even for an assignment, but just because) when I should be doing OWL home work. =P
It is not a phenomenon, because it's been going on for years. It is a perfect example of how our society participates, reproduces, and enforces a social institution without even knowing it, ignorant of the things going around us without giving them a second thought of how it came to be. So what is it? What is the Prison Industrial Complex? We can look to Angela Davis for the answer to this question. In her article "Masked Racism: Reflections on the Prison Industrial Complex," Davis asserts that Americans are tricked into believing in the "magic" of the prison system. People are bought into thinking that imprisonment is the solution to social problems of poverty, drugs, or murder. However, "prisons do not disappear problems, they disappear human beings. And the practice of disappearing vast number of people from poor, immigrant, and racially marginalized communities has literally become BIG BUSINESS."
Basically, the prison system is a business, a systematic cooperation between the government and private corporations to gain free labor and capital. And we, being consumers and participants of a society gripped by the fear of crime, are also involved. Here’s what basically going on (some direct quotes from Davis): Prisons are being privatized (not government run) and are even held less accountable for violation of international human rights standards. Government contracts to build prisons have bolstered the construction industry. Technology developed for the military by companies are being marketed for use in law enforcement and punishment. Prison construction bond holders are also leading financier for tapping into this profitable investment. Numerous companies (such as Motorola, IBM, Compaq, Microsoft, Boeing, Victoria Secret, Chevron, Revlon, and Nordstrom) are using FREE prison labor. “For private business, prison labor is like a pot of gold. No strikes. No union organizing. No health benefits, unemployment insurance, or workers’ compensation to pay,” write Eve Goldberg and Linda Evans.
What is the effect of prison labor? Davis writes, “The penal system itself does not produce wealth. It devours the social wealth that could be used to subsidize housing for the homeless, to ameliorate public education for the poor and racially marginalized communities, to open free drug rehabilitation programs for people who wish to kick their habits, to eradicate a national health care system, to expand programs to combat HIV, to eradicate domestic abuse—and, in the process, to create well-paying jobs for the unemployed.”
There’s a whole other section about racialized criminality and how the political economy of prisons relies on colored bodies that David talks about, but I won’t get to my homework if I continue. I don’t know what I can do knowing all this. Maybe I’ll become an activist one day. But I know I’ll encounter many other causes, social problems to fight for, not just this one. I guess writing this is just a way for me to internalize things I read/learn in class. I don’t have a good way to sum this up. I just want people to know about this, too.
Daaaang (looking back on what I wrote)…. I better be able to use this as an assignment in one of my classes.
2 comments:
Hey Sherry, I remember reading that article, along with many others, at UIC. The PIC is a horrible but very complex problem. I'm encountering it in my sociology of education classes here at DePaul at the graduate level, too. Are you taking any classes with Helen Jun?
yeah, I'm just starting to learn more about it. I know it's a lot more complex than I can understand right now. but ya, we talked about in my Sociology class. No I haven't taken any classes with Helen Jun, but my sis keeps recommending her, so I probably will try to get into one of her classes sometime within the next 2 yrs hopefully.
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