Prison-industrial complex

The Prison-industrial complex (Wikipedia article link) refers to the collaboration between usually (privatized) prisons and other interested parties.

According to Wikipedia:

The term "prison–industrial complex" (PIC) is used to attribute the rapid expansion of the US inmate population to the political influence of private prison companies and businesses that supply goods and services to government prison agencies. The term is derived from the "military–industrial complex" of the 1950s. Such groups include corporations that contract prison labor, construction companies, surveillance technology vendors, companies that operate prison food services and medical facilities, private probation companies, lawyers, and lobby groups that represent them. Activist groups such as the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) have argued that the prison-industrial complex is perpetuating a flawed belief that imprisonment is an effective solution to social problems such as homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, mental illness, and illiteracy.

Huge profits are earned by privatized prisons. Lawmakers often solicit and receive campaign contributions from corporations running privatized prisons, which then encourage lawmakers to pass even more severe laws.

The laws prohibiting adult-child sex and child pornography have been a great boon to the privatized prison industry.

Billions of dollars of tax-payers money are wasted each year due to unnecessary laws against the personal consumption of certain drugs, or enforcing laws prohibiting the viewing of certain kinds of images, or engaging in certain kinds of sexual activity.

External links

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prison
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison-industrial_complex
• "The Emerging Criminal War on Sex Offenders"

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1953464_code411609.pdf?abstractid=1456042&mirid=1

• http://www.publiceye.org/defendingjustice/overview/herzing_pic.html