>WHo believes that it doesn't BOOST the GNP, as part
>of a corporate/industrial/prison/military complex to the
>benefit of millions of the average middle class folks
>employed within? (Little Eichmans)
Christian Parenti believes it doesn't, and he knows quite a lot about this. And American corrections employs about half a million people full time.
"The politicians who produce these laws and other policies do not necessarily do so for the structurally beneficial impacts they will have. Rather, the average get-tough pol is simply looking for a compelling issue that speaks to voters' anxieties without actually saying anything revealing or dangerous about class power and privilege. On such a journey there seems to be no better horse to ride than the trusty stead of crime coded racism. But the inevitable outcome of such electioneering is legislation that is also useful in bolstering and reproducing an unequal society
."
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Prison_System/BeyondPrisonIndusComp.html
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=852