Nexus - 0604 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX AND THE GLOBAL ECONOMY COMPLEX THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL GLOBAL ECONOMY AND THE Prisons, whether state-run or private, are a huge growth industry worldwide, earning millions for their owners while exploiting prisoners for their cheap labour. ver 1.8 million people are currently behind bars in the United States. This rep- resents the highest per-capita incarceration rate in the history of the world. In 1995 alone, 150 new US prisons were built and filled. This monumental com- mitment to lock up a sizeable percentage of the population is an integral part of the globalisation of capital. Several strands converged at the end of the Cold War, chang- ing relations between labour and capital on an international scale: domestic economic decline, racism, the US role as policeman of the world, and growth of the international drug economy in creating a booming prison industrial complex. And the prison industrial complex is rapidly becoming an essential component of the US economy. PRISONS ARE BIG BUSINESS Like the military industrial complex, the prison industrial complex is an interweaving of private business and government interests. Its twofold purpose is profit and social control. Its public rationale is the fight against crime. Not so long ago, communism was "the enemy" and communists were demonised as a way of j ying gargantuan military expenditures. Now, fear of crime and the demonisation of criminals serve a similar ideo- logical purpose: to justify the use of tax dollars for the repression and incarceration of a growing percentage of our population. The omnipresent media blitz about serial killers, missing children and "random violence" feeds our fear. In reality, however, most of the "criminals" we lock up are poor people who commit non-violent crimes out of economic need. Violence occurs in less than 14 per cent of all reported crime, and injuries occur in just 3 per cent. In California, the top three charges for those entering prison are: possession of a controlled substance; possession of a con- trolled substance for sale; and robbery. Violent crimes like murder, rape, manslaughter and kidnapping don't even make the top ten. Like fear of communism during the Cold War, fear of crime is a great selling tool for a dubious product. As with the building and maintenance of weapons and armies, the building and mainte- nance of prisons are big business. Investment houses, construction companies, architects and support services, such as food, medical, transportation and furniture, all stand to profit by prison expansion. A burgeoning "speciality item" industry sells fencing, handcuffs, drug detectors, protective vests and other security devices to prisons. As the Cold War winds down and the Crime War heats up, defence industry giants like Westinghouse are re-tooling and lobbying Washington for their share of the domestic law- enforcement market. "Night Enforcer" goggles used in the Gulf War, electronic "Hot Wire" fencing ("so hot, NATO chose it for high-risk installations"), and other equipment once used by the military are now being marketed to the criminal justice system. Communication companies like AT&T, Sprint and MCI are getting into the act as well, gouging prisoners with exorbitant phone-calling rates often six times the normal long-dis- tance charge. Smaller firms like Correctional Communications Corp., dedicated solely to the prison phone business, provide computerised prison phone systems fully equipped for systematic surveillance. They win government contracts by offering to "kick back" some of the profits to the government agency awarding the contract. These companies are reap- ing huge profits at the expense of prisoners and their families; and prisoners are often effectively cut off from communication due to the excessive cost of phone calls. One of the fastest growing sectors of the prison industrial complex is private corrections companies. Investment firm Smith Barney is a part-owner of a prison in Florida. American Express and General Electric have invested in private prison construction in by Eve Goldberg and Linda Evans © 1998/99 Prison Activist Resource Center O Box 339 Berkeley, CA 94701, USA Telephone: (510) 845 8813 E-mail: parc@prisonactivist.org by Eve Goldberg and Linda Evans © 1998/99 Prison Activist Resource Center PO Box 339 Berkeley, CA 94701, USA Telephone: (510) 845 8813 E-mail: parc@prisonactivist.org JUNE — JULY 1999 NEXUS - 21