Prison–industrial complex
The prison–industrial complex is a term for the relationship between the government and businesses and how prisons are involved. Some sources say the government makes sure that many people are locked up in prison to provide cheap workers for businesses. It is similar to the term military–industrial complex.
It is an expression used to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems.
The United States has the largest prison population in the world. Many of those prisons are private prisons run by companies rather than the government.
Prison–industrial Complex Media
Correctional populations in the U.S., 1980–2013
US timeline graphs of number of people incarcerated in jails and prisons.
Timeline of total number of inmates in U.S. prisons and jails. From 1920 to 2008. War on Drugs (1971). Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (mandatory minimum sentencing). See also:
Private prison stock prices from 2002 to 2012
A graph of the US incarceration rate under state and federal jurisdiction per 100,000 population 1925–2008 (omits local jail inmates). The male incarceration rate (top line) is 15 times the female rate (bottom line).
US homicide victims by race, 1980–2008
US homicide convictions by race, 1980–2008
