Life in prison for stealing food

[Max Sawicky]

By this logic there ought to be many more imprisoned in
Europe, where labor markets are slack and unemployment
higher, and less here, where they are tight.  Is this
not the opposite of the facts, and thus, wouldn't that
suggest other factors loom much larger?

Anybody have stats on the extent of prison labor and
associated profits in the U.S.?  There is a long
tradition of special deal between politicians and
business persons to exploit prison labor, but in
any global sense the benefits of the prison work
would seem grossly outweighed by the costs.

mbs


>
> As I recall the Marxist criminologist was predicting these
> kinds of developments within the criminal justice system
> well over twenty years ago.  His reasoning was that under
> late capitalism there will be an ever growing surplus
> population
> as fewer and fewer workers are required.  Therefore, mechanisms
> for repressing this growing surplus population would be
> required, preferrably carried out in ways profitable
> to capital.
> Hence, Quinney predicted that there would be a rapid expansion
> of the prison-indsutrial complex.
>
> 		Jim F.
>