Joanna wrote:
>The current prison industrial complex regime
We seem to be stuck with this term but there are real problems with it. It suggests that industry makes a lot money from prison labor but that's not the case. Industry and prison labor are not a good fit and companies don't like to use it nearly as much as people think. Guards don't like inmates working for someone else because it interferes with their authority and companies don't need the headache of frequent disruptions that happen for many reasons, e.g. inmates can't work when a facility is locked down or when weather interferes with prisoners moving around (a foggy day say, when movement is restricted because of decreased visibility).
Prisons don't help local economies either. Most prison employees don't live in the towns where prisons are located and they buy supplies from outside. Prisons are nothing but trouble for locals.
The motor for prison expansion is government, not industry. Politicians have been getting easy votes for decades by being tough on crime and prison guards' unions have been throwing tons of money at legislators to not only get raises for themselves, but to keep their jobs secure by backing three-strikes laws etc.