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The Prison Industrial Complex (P.I.C) is a term used to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment to address or cover up economic, social and political problems.
The Prison Industrial Complex is not just prisons themselves, it is mutually reinforcing web of relationships, between and not limited to, for example, prisons, the probation service, the police, the courts, all the companies that profit from transporting, feeding and exploiting prisoners, and so forth. This concept and definition was first defined by the grassroots organization Critical Resistance.
Here is an illustration from The Corrections Documentary Project to help you visualize some of the complex influences and profiteers in the development of the PIC:
The Prison Industrial Complex is not just prisons themselves, it is mutually reinforcing web of relationships, between and not limited to, for example, prisons, the probation service, the police, the courts, all the companies that profit from transporting, feeding and exploiting prisoners, and so forth. This concept and definition was first defined by the grassroots organization Critical Resistance.
Here is an illustration from The Corrections Documentary Project to help you visualize some of the complex influences and profiteers in the development of the PIC:
Since the 1970s and 1980s, the US prison population has ballooned.
We are now in what many would call a "prison state." The hallmarks of this shift are a dismissal of suffering and inequality (and often a blaming of individuals and communities for the results of systematic disinvestment and discrimination) combined with enough force and material consequence to stop people from resisting. Instead of investing in community and social welfare resources, a prison state uses police, prisons, jails, and surveillance to control dissent and "disappear" social problems and unrest.
We are now in what many would call a "prison state." The hallmarks of this shift are a dismissal of suffering and inequality (and often a blaming of individuals and communities for the results of systematic disinvestment and discrimination) combined with enough force and material consequence to stop people from resisting. Instead of investing in community and social welfare resources, a prison state uses police, prisons, jails, and surveillance to control dissent and "disappear" social problems and unrest.
