Editing Prison–industrial complex (section)

{{Short description|Attribution of the U.S.'s high incarceration rate to profit}}{{Globalize|date=June 2023|2=USA}}
{{Use American English|date = April 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date = April 2019}}
[[File:United States correctional population.svg|thumb|320x320px|Correctional populations in the U.S., 1980–2013]]
[[File:US timeline graphs of number of people incarcerated in jails and prisons.png|thumb|300px|US timeline graphs of number of people incarcerated in jails and prisons<ref name=Vera>Jacob Kang-Brown, Chase Montagnet, and Jasmine Heiss. [https://www.vera.org/publications/people-in-jail-and-prison-in-spring-2021 People in Jail and Prison in Spring 2021]. New York: [[Vera Institute of Justice]], 2021.</ref>]]

The '''prison–industrial complex''' ('''PIC''') is a term, coined after the "[[military–industrial complex|military-industrial complex]]" of the 1950s,<ref name=":20">{{cite book|title=Punishment for Sale: Private Prisons, Big Business, and the Incarceration Binge|last2=Leighton|first2=Paul|date=2010|publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]]|isbn=978-1442201736|pages=78|last1=Selman|first1=Donna|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5lBraTDtiSgC&pg=PA78|access-date=November 2, 2020|archive-date=April 13, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220413083240/https://books.google.com/books?id=5lBraTDtiSgC&pg=PA78|url-status=live}}</ref> used by scholars and activists to describe the many relationships between institutions of imprisonment (such as prisons, jails, detention facilities, and psychiatric hospitals) and the various businesses that benefit from them.<ref name=":21" />

The term is most often used in the context of the contemporary United States, where the [[United States incarceration rate#Growth and Subsequent Decline|expansion of the U.S. inmate population]] has resulted in economic profit and political influence for [[private prison|private prisons]] and other companies that supply goods and services to government prison agencies.<ref name="Harcourt">[[Bernard Harcourt|Harcourt, Bernard]] (2012). ''[http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674066168 The Illusion of Free Markets: Punishment and the Myth of Natural Order] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815065231/https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674066168 |date=August 15, 2021 }}.'' [[Harvard University Press]]. {{ISBN|0674066162}} [https://archive.org/details/illusio_har_2011_00_4464/page/236 p. 236]</ref> According to this concept, incarceration not only upholds the justice system, but also subsidizes construction companies, companies that operate prison food services and medical facilities,<ref name="Friedmann">Alex Friedmann (15 January 2012). [https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2012/jan/15/the-societal-impact-of-the-prison-industrial-complex-or-incarceration-for-fun-and-profitmostly-profit/ The Societal Impact of the Prison Industrial Complex, or Incarceration for Fun and Profit—Mostly Profit] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808115232/https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2012/jan/15/the-societal-impact-of-the-prison-industrial-complex-or-incarceration-for-fun-and-profitmostly-profit/|date=August 8, 2014}}. ''[[Prison Legal News]].'' Retrieved 23 July 2014.</ref> [[surveillance]] and corrections technology vendors, corporations that contract cheap [[prison labor]], correctional officers [[Labor union|unions]],<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/42077-prison-guard-unions-play-a-key-role-in-expanding-the-prison-industrial-complex|title=Prison Guard Unions Play a Key Role in Expanding the Prison-Industrial Complex|author=Arria, Michael|publisher=[[Truthout]]|date=2017-09-27|access-date=2018-04-22|archive-date=April 23, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180423033455/http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/42077-prison-guard-unions-play-a-key-role-in-expanding-the-prison-industrial-complex|url-status=live}}</ref> [[private probation]] companies,<ref name="Friedmann" /> criminal lawyers, and the [[lobby groups]] that represent them. The term also refers more generally to interest groups who, in their interactions with the prison system, prioritize financial gain over [[rehabilitation (penology)|rehabilitating]] criminals.

Proponents of this concept, including civil rights organizations such as the [[Rutherford Institute]] and the [[American Civil Liberties Union]] (ACLU), believe that the economic incentives of prison construction, prison privatization, prison labor, and prison service contracts have transformed incarceration into an industry capable of growth, and have contributed to [[mass incarceration]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/jailing_americans_for_profit_the_rise_of_the_prison_industrial_complex|title=Jailing Americans for Profit: The Rise of the Prison Industrial Complex|last=Whitehead|first=John|date=April 10, 2012|publisher=[[Rutherford Institute]]|access-date=June 29, 2013|archive-date=June 14, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130614145241/https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/jailing_americans_for_profit_the_rise_of_the_prison_industrial_complex|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite web|last=Shapiro|first=David|title=Banking on Bondage: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration|url=https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/bankingonbondage_20111102.pdf|publisher=[[American Civil Liberties Union]]|access-date=29 June 2013|archive-date=December 3, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161203175853/https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/bankingonbondage_20111102.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> These advocacy groups note that incarceration [[Race in the United States criminal justice system|affects people of color]] at disproportionately high rates.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-w-whitehead/prison-privatization_b_1414467.html|title=Jailing Americans for Profit: The Rise of the Prison Industrial Complex|last=Whitehead|first=John W.|date=2012-04-10|website=Huffington Post|language=en-US|access-date=2017-10-23|archive-date=October 16, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171016003332/https://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-w-whitehead/prison-privatization_b_1414467.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Many commentators use the term "prison-industrial complex" to refer strictly to private prisons in the United States, an industry that generates approximately $4 billion in profit a year.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Haberman|first=Clyde|date=2018-10-01|title=For Private Prisons, Detaining Immigrants Is Big Business|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/us/prisons-immigration-detention.html|access-date=2021-11-11|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=November 11, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111204618/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/us/prisons-immigration-detention.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Others note that fewer than 10% of U.S. inmates are incarcerated in for-profit facilities,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Wagner|first=Peter|date=October 7, 2015|publisher=Prison Policy Initiative|title=Are Private Prisons Driving Mass Incarceration?|url=https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2015/10/07/private_prisons_parasite/|url-status=live|access-date=May 20, 2022|archive-date=November 11, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111193454/https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2015/10/07/private_prisons_parasite/}}</ref> and use the term to diagnose a larger confluence of interests between the U.S. government, at the federal and state levels, and the private businesses that profit from the increasing surveillance, policing, and imprisonment of the American public since approximately 1980.<ref name=":21">{{Cite web|title=What is the Prison Industrial Complex? – Tufts University Prison Divestment|url=https://sites.tufts.edu/prisondivestment/the-pic-and-mass-incarceration/|access-date=2021-11-11|language=en-US|archive-date=November 11, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111182605/https://sites.tufts.edu/prisondivestment/the-pic-and-mass-incarceration/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Brayne|first=Sarah|date=2014-06-01|title=Surveillance and System Avoidance: Criminal Justice Contact and Institutional Attachment|journal=American Sociological Review|language=en|volume=79|issue=3|pages=367–391|doi=10.1177/0003122414530398|s2cid=38476779|issn=0003-1224|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Isaac|first=Jeffrey C.|date=September 2015|title=The American Politics of Policing and Incarceration|journal=Perspectives on Politics|language=en|volume=13|issue=3|pages=609–616|doi=10.1017/S1537592715001206|s2cid=142996394|issn=1537-5927|doi-access=free}}</ref>