The Prison Industrial Complex Effects on People Research

The Prison Industrial Complex effects on people
Student:
Course title and number:
Instructor:
Date submitted:
The Prison Industrial Complex effects on people
Correctional officials in the United States today see danger in the overcrowding of jails. Other entities see this as an opportunity. The roughly 2 million prisoners in the United States – most of who are nonviolent criminals – mean windfalls for profiteers and jobs for depressed areas (Mulch, 2012). This descriptive essay provides an exhaustive discussion of how the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) affects people.
The disproportionate arrests and unwarranted long-term incarcerations of largely Latinos, Blacks and Native Americans have resulted in devastating effects not just on individuals, but also on entire communities. However, for many private prisons and companies that are part of the Prison Industrial Complex, prison equals profits and mass imprisonment is actually a good thing for them (Thompson, 2012). The term Prison Industrial Complex is utilized in describing the overlapping interests of industry and government that employ imprisonment, policing and surveillance as solutions to political, social and economic problems. The term is also utilized in attributing the speedy expansion of the prison populace to the political influence of private prison businesses and corporations which supply services and goods to government prison agencies (Kontos, 2016).
The boom in prison population in the United States has created a lucrative market for business organizations, which seek to profit by offering correctional services. The multi-billion industry makes the most of punishment and crime (Ooten, 2013). The PIC comprises a confluence of policy, business, as well as special interest groups which all of them together profit from imprisonment. The obvious members are private jail firms like GEO Group, Cornell Corrections and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) (Ooten, 2013).
The PIC has an adverse impact on people. It has increased the disenfranchisement of marginalized Latino and African American communities. Convicts who are imprisoned in private jails are often exposed to higher violence levels because of the business model used by the private prison industry of decreasing costs of staffing that in turn leads to higher rates of employee turnover, understaffing of the facilities, as well as instability. Inmates who are released from these prisons tend to have higher rates of recidivism, which endangers the public safety (Thompson, 2012).
For-profit, private prison corporations in general seek to maintain – and increase – the quantity of imprisoned individuals. The primary purpose of these corporations is essentially to make profit, not to reduce recidivism, help in the rehabilitation of criminals, or ensure public safety and therefore reduce the amount of victimization and crime within American communities (Kontos, 2016). Private prisons in America operate with the business model of reducing costs and generating higher profits. Prison officers in private jail companies are paid a monthly salary of $1,820 on average, whereas state prison officers get $2,775 on average every month. Because they pay their workers very low ...