Prison–industrial complex

"Prison-industrial complex" (PIC) is a term that refers to the vast network of interlocking interests between government and private industry that promote the expansion of prisons and incarceration rates, as well as reentry surveillance of former inmates. The term, coined by critics of the phenomenon, also refers to the growing trend, begun in the late twentieth century, of escalating practices of surveillance, sentencing, and imprisonment as approaches to solving complex socioeconomic problems. It is most often discussed in the context of the US criminal justice system, although the concept has informed discourse in other countries as well.

This phenomenon has also given rise to a growing number of activist organizations who posit that the prison-industrial complex maintains and exacerbates racial and economic inequalities. Critics often argue that the expansion of the prison-industrial complex has been supported—directly and indirectly—by mass media images that further stereotypes of people of color and people in poverty, positioning them as inclined to criminal behavior and delinquency. Organizations such as prison guard unions and politicians hoping to gain votes through "tough on crime" policies may also contribute to the expansion of the prison-industrial complex. These complex, often interconnected factors combine to create a profiteering class that gains immensely from the increasing privatization of prisons and prison services.

History

The term "prison-industrial complex," which takes after President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s popularization of the term "military-industrial complex," first appeared in the late 1990s. It refers to a set of political and business interests that promote the expansion of the prison system and increased spending on correctional services.

Historically, the US prison boom is a relatively recent development. For most of the twentieth century the rate of imprisonment remained fairly stable, with about 110 inmates for every 100,000 people. It began to rise in the 1970s; it doubled in the 1980s and then again in the 1990s. Over a thousand new prisons and jails were built in the last two decades of the twentieth century, but they could scarcely keep up with the rising demand. By 1998, the incarceration rate was 445 imprisoned people for every 100,000 adults in the US, and between 2006 and 2008 it peaked at roughly 1,000 inmates per 100,000 residents.

The momentum behind skyrocketing US incarceration rates came from both conservative and liberal politicians adopting tough-on-crime stances in the 1980s and passing legislation such as mandatory minimum sentencing laws that require lengthy prison terms for nonviolent offenses such as drug possession. The controversial US "war on drugs," which many researchers have found disproportionately targeted people of color, is considered an especially important factor. Some experts suggest that the growth of mass media during this period further contributed to public fear of crime and legislative responses by perpetuating stereotypes of people of color as more inclined to commit crime. Economic hardship also played a role in the expansion of the US prison industry. Rural areas hard hit by economic change and the loss of manufacturing jobs viewed steadily increasing spending on corrections—worth tens of billions of dollars annually by the early twenty-first century—as a desirable market to tap.

According to most experts, the expansion of the prison-industrial complex did not align with trends in crime rates. The rate of violent crime in the United States fell 20 percent from 1991 to 1998, while the number of imprisoned people rose by 50 percent during that period, for example. While about 50 percent of the people imprisoned in the 1980s were sentenced for violent crime, by the mid-1990s less than a third of inmates were convicted of a violent crime. Scholars point to the rise of compulsory sentencing laws, as well as longer and harsher sentences given to individuals for nonviolent offenses. From the 1980s to 2008, the number of activities considered federal crimes increased from about 3,000 to about 4,500, raising the number of chances to break the law, sometimes unknowingly. Moreover, the penalties for many different federal offenses stiffened. The rise in nonviolent crime is also explained, according to experts, by declining economic conditions for urban working-class communities, institutionalized racism, untreated addiction, and homelessness, among other social problems.

Along with tougher sentencing, the expansion of private prison corporations received bipartisan support under the administrations of presidents Ronald Reagan (1980–88), George H. W. Bush (1988–92), Bill Clinton (1992–2000), and George W. Bush (2000–8). Several rationales exist for shifting prisons from public to private management. Among the most important is wastefulness. It was believed that private industry would be more efficient at curbing costs. Another was evidence of egregious violations of human rights in some state prisons; supporters argued that inmates would be better treated in private facilities. The drive for smaller government and reduction in the federal workforce was another common justification. The support for private prisons also helped to open new opportunities for profit in areas such as correctional health and food services, telephone calls for inmates, inmate housing, supervision of parole and probation, and more. According to many observers, the profitability of the private prison industry both drew on and contributed to increasing incarceration rates, as companies rushed to meet demand and also lobbied for policies that would create even more demand for their services.

Incarceration rates in the US did begin to decline significantly around 2008. By 2014, the rate had fallen to 698 incarcerated people per 100,000 residents, and it reached 573 inmates per 100,000 residents by 2022. A number of factors contributed to this trend, including further declines in crime rate as well as enhanced scrutiny of the prison-industrial complex itself. Calls for reform of the criminal justice system, including the prison system, mounted throughout the 2010s with the rise of influential social justice movements such as Black Lives Matter (BLM). There was also growing criticism of private prisons specifically. Opponents pointed out a lack of conclusive evidence that private prisons actually reduce costs, as well as various problems stemming from a lack of government oversight. Several private prison corporations faced court challenges, fines, loss of contracts, and negative media attention for alleged violations of inmates’ rights and other controversial actions.

The administration of President Barack Obama (2009–17) was generally more supportive of criminal justice reforms than previous administrations. Notably, in 2016 the US government announced plans to end its use of private prisons. Although that decision was reversed by Obama's successor, Donald Trump, some criminal justice reforms continued. For example, in late 2018, Trump signed a bill intended to reduce the federal prison population. After President Joe Biden, who had served as Obama's vice president, took office in January 2021, he signed an executive order severing all contracts between the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), which administers federally run prisons in the US, and private prison companies. The contract with the last private prison housing BOP inmates, located in Georgia, officially ended in November 2022.

Many activists hailed such reforms as positive steps toward improving the problems created by the prison-industrial complex. However, many critics suggested that systemic issues remained firmly entrenched, as reflected in ongoing racial and economic disparities in the criminal justice system. For example, a 2021 report from the Sentencing Project, a research and advocacy center based in Washington, DC, found that Black Americans were incarcerated at nearly five times the rate of White Americans, whereas Latino Americans were imprisoned 1.3 times the rate of White Americans. Women remained a small percentage of the incarcerated, yet the number of women imprisoned in the United States made up about a third of all incarcerated women worldwide. African American women were incarcerated at a rate of four times that of White women. Meanwhile, most White people in the correctional system came from low-income backgrounds.

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