Mass Incarceration and The Prison Industrial Complex by Leyla Guven https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm en-us 2021-04-21 19:46:38 UTC 2025-11-18 04:06:08 UTC hello@padlet.com lguven777 https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1444435159 The topic I chose is Mass Incarceration and the Prison Industrial Complex. I first learned about this topic when, earlier this year, I read the book Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis, which I found interesting because it gave me an academic account of a topic that I had heard about on social media and in conversations I had with my peers. I didn’t realize that the privatization of prisons has led to an incentive to arrest and incarcerate as many people as possible for as long as possible, in order to make a profit. This is additionally important because the Prison Industrial Complex disproportionately affects African Americans.]]> 2021-04-21 20:10:23 UTC https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1444435159 This timeline shows how mass incarceration is historically derived from slavery. lguven777 https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1444712486 (Ben & Jerry's Homemade, 2019)]]> 2021-04-21 21:57:26 UTC https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1444712486 The Prison Industrial Complex is a term, “introduced by activists and scholars to contest prevailing beliefs that increased levels of crime were the root cause of mounting prison populations. Instead, they argued, prison construction and the attendant drive to fill these new structures with human bodies have been driven by ideologies of racism and the pursuit of profit” (Davis, 2003, p.84). lguven777 https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1444723268 2021-04-21 22:03:17 UTC https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1444723268 This graph shows the rise in incarceration following the start of the war on drugs. lguven777 https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1444730681 (Nott, 2016)]]> 2021-04-21 22:07:29 UTC https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1444730681 lguven777 https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1444732394 (Russell, 2016)]]> 2021-04-21 22:08:31 UTC https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1444732394 lguven777 https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1444744976 The historical connection of the abolition of slavery and the exception in the Thirteenth Amendment that allowed for unpaid prison labor led to a tendency to regulate and imprison African American people for minor infractions. The “War on Drugs” that was promoted by Presidents Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton only exacerbated this issue while solidifying the idea that to be a successful leader, you have to be tough on crime. What was not explicit in the “War on Drugs” was the disproportionate incarceration and lengthier sentencing of people of color for drug related crimes. For example, the difference in sentencing between crack cocaine and powder cocaine, despite the same basic chemical compositions, due to the fact that crack cocaine is predominantly used in black communities.]]> 2021-04-21 22:15:13 UTC https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1444744976 The prison industrial complex is relevant today because it profits from the mass incarceration of people of color, specifically African Americans, which is an issue that is still prevalent to this day. For example, “Although the prevalence of illegal drug use among white men is approximately the same as that among black men, black men are five times as likely to be arrested for a drug offense” (Schlosser, 1998). lguven777 https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1444752682 2021-04-21 22:19:31 UTC https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1444752682 lguven777 https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1444756837 (DuVernay, 2016)]]> 2021-04-21 22:21:43 UTC https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1444756837 "More than 4,100 companies in the U.S. profit from mass incarceration. Many of these are prisons themselves, but some are companies who rely on penal labor to manufacture goods or provide services" (Curry, 2020). lguven777 https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1444968963 Some of these companies include Amazon, Bank of America, Berkshire Hathaway, Cincinnati Bell, Chevrolet, FedEx, etc...]]> 2021-04-22 00:14:57 UTC https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1444968963 lguven777 https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1444987455 (Kirshner-Breen, 2017)]]> 2021-04-22 00:22:00 UTC https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1444987455 lguven777 https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1445012650 The topic of the prison industrial complex becomes controversial when it comes to the use of prison-made furniture in universities, which has led to protests by students across the country. Inmates in correctional facilities in every state except for Alaska make goods that are sometimes bought by universities. For example, "At the University of Washington, dorm furniture is made by inmates in Washington prisons. A movement led by UW United Students Against Sweatshops has demanded the university cut its ties with corrections" (Burke, 2020).]]> 2021-04-22 00:31:35 UTC https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1445012650 Products of Prison Labor at George Mason University lguven777 https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1445036697 Did you know that many ordinary objects, such as university furniture, are made by prisoners who make under a dollar an hour?
(Truong, 2018)]]> 2021-04-22 00:40:33 UTC https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1445036697 Legislation lguven777 https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1445043837 In Texas, the state incarceration rate quadrupled from 1978 to 2003, in part due to, "laws like the 1994 Crime Bill, which gave states money to perpetuate policies that bred bloated prisons.” (Cullen, 2018).

The 13th Amendment ended slavery, but with a very important exception, prison labor. After the 13th Amendment was passed, slave codes were quickly replaced with Black Codes, so that black people, "once seen as less than fully human “slaves,” were seen as less than fully human “criminals.” (Stevenson, 2019). Black codes made the criminal-justice system, "central to new strategies of racial control" (Stevenson, 2019).
]]> 2021-04-22 00:43:12 UTC https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1445043837 References lguven777 https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1445105674 Alexander, M. (2010). The New Jim Crow. The New Press.

Burke, L. (2020, February 14). Public Universities, Prison-Made Furniture.        Inside Higher Ed.   https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/02/14/public-universities-several-states-are-required-buy-prison-industries. 


Cullen, J. (2021, April 13). The History of Mass Incarceration. Brennan Center for Justice. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/history-mass-incarceration. 


Curry, R. (2020, November 11). Companies That Use Prison Labor. Market Realist. https://marketrealist.com/p/companies-that-use-prison-labor/. 


Davis, A. Y. (2011). Are Prisons Obsolete? Seven Stories Press. 


DuVernay, A. (2016, September 26). 13TH | official trailer (2016) Netflix. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6IXQbXPO3I. 


Joshuarussell. (2016, February 2). Race and mass incarceration. Mennonite Central Committee U.S. https://mcc.org/stories/race-mass-incarceration. 


Kirshner-Breen, S. (2017, August 3). The Prison Industrial Complex. Medium. https://medium.com/@kbreenconsulting/the-prison-industrial-complex-cc1f06c5f8c7. 


Nott, D. (2016, May 25). What is Mass Incarceration? Medium. https://medium.com/@dan_nott/what-is-mass-incarceration-ff737196580. 


Schlosser, E. (2020, June 16). The Prison-Industrial Complex. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1998/12/the-prison-industrial-complex/304669/. 


Stevenson, B. (2019, August 14). Why American Prisons Owe Their Cruelty to Slavery. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/prison-industrial-complex-slavery-racism.html. 


Truong, E. (2018, February 25). Products of prison labor on campus. Fourth Estate. https://gmufourthestate.com/2018/02/25/products-of-prison-labor-on-campus/.


]]> 2021-04-22 01:05:51 UTC https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1445105674 Imagine two people committing the same crime but getting different punishments. Wouldn't that offend our sense of justice? lguven777 https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1480353959 2021-05-01 01:50:10 UTC https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1480353959 lguven777 https://padlet.com/lguven777/4nefnewv4a4xkscm/wish/1480358323 "It is fair to say that we have witnessed an evolution in the United States from a racial caste system based entirely on exploitation (slavery), to one based largely on subordination (Jim Crow), to one defined by marginalization (mass incarceration). While marginalization may sound far preferable to exploitation, it may prove to be even more dangerous. Extreme marginalization, as we have seen throughout world history, poses the risk of extermination. Tragedies such as the Holocaust in Germany or ethnic cleansing in Bosnia are traceable to the extreme marginalization and stigmatization of racial and ethnic groups. As legal scholar john a. powell once commented, only half in jest, 'It’s actually better to be exploited than marginalized, in some respects, because if you’re exploited, presumably you’re still needed.'" (Alexander, 2010, p. 219).

(john a. powell, Executive Director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, personal communication, Jan. 2007.)


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