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
- United States correctional population.svg
Correctional populations in the U.S., 1980–2013
- US timeline graphs of number of people incarcerated in jails and prisons.png
US timeline graphs of number of people incarcerated in jails and prisons.
- US incarceration timeline.gif
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
- U.S. incarceration rates 1925 onwards.png
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).
- United States homicide victimization rates by race 1980 2008.svg
US homicide victims by race, 1980–2008
- United States homicide offending rates by race 1980 2008.svg
US homicide convictions by race, 1980–2008
