Prison Industrial Complex Essay

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Rachel Herzing defines "Prison Industrial Complex" (PIC) as, “a term we use to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to what are, in actuality, economic, social, and political ‘problems’” (Herzing). She means that the prison industrial complex protects the people who gain control through structural privileges. It helps the government, industry, and people who have power in our society. This unequal power creates bad images that portray people of color, underprivileged people, and immigrants as criminals. These “criminals” make a great amount of income for businesses in exchange for goods and services for the prisons and prisoners. The prison industrial complex …show more content…
Angela F. Chan said, “The 13th amendment did not abolish slavery but rather moved it from the plantation to prison” (Chan). These prisoners are forced to work for private corporations and get little to nothing in return. Statistics state that there are more black people that are in prison today than there were slaves in the 1800s. This is because many states in the south started to arrest black people for minor crimes. Arresting people for minor crimes causes a problem in the prison system. It causes overcrowding in prisons. There are researchers that say that the causes of prison overcrowding are tough consequences for minor criminal actions, alterations to laws that create new activities illegal, great recidivism rates and necessary developments to the penal system. In the article “The moral failure of America’s prison-industrial complex”, W.W. explained a way to end overcrowding in prison. W.W. stated, “Those who have served a proportional sentence, and have proven themselves worth, deserve to be restored to public life” (W.). He is stating that prisoners should be released from prison if they served the amount of time they deserve from the crime they made. Keeping criminals in prison helps us and hurts us. Prisons serve an essential part in keeping our communities safe but also locking up numerous peaceful individuals for overlong sentences is an avoidable bill. The overuse of the 13th amendment led to …show more content…
James Gilligan wrote, “When people are dangerous to themselves or others, we restrain them -…- for the only lesson learned is to inflict pain in others” (Gilligan). Instead of rehabilitating, prisons basically promote and allow violence. These prisoners experience many types of violence in prisons. According the article “What is the Prison Industrial Complex?” , “Prisoners experience violence in prisons themselves through physical and psycho-emotional assault, sexual assault and rape, harassment and neglect of many needs, especially health needs”(N/A). When prisoners and guards are always around violent people in a limited space, violence is guaranteed to occur. Elizabeth Thompson who wrote “What Are the Causes of Prison Violence” said, “A lack of staff training or inexperience also results in prisoner violence. Poorly equipped staff may have trouble interacting with inmates or responding to them professionally” (Thompson). The lack of staff training can cause a guard to not know how to handle a situation and lead them from trying to help to acting violent against the prisoner. Even though these prisoners are incarcerated doesn’t mean that they are immune to

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