The mass exodus of the middle and working class has added to the growth of the prison industrial complex because it forced the poor lower class, generally people of color, into the inner cities creating a smaller and easier place for the police to patrol. Also, with the war on drugs this centralization of lower socio-economic population made it easier to arrest these people under the “war on drugs” created by the Nixon administration.
“Reganomics increased class and racial polarization, destroyed inner cities, sacked public education and public health services, created epidemic homelessness, increased exploitation of workers and caused the intensified spatial concentration of a permanently unemployed class.” Finally, the mass exodus of manufacturing jobs outside the U.S. contributed to the prison industrial complex because businesses realized that they could profit more if they exported their jobs to third world nations where they could pay the workers much less then they would in the U.S. Along with third world nations, institutions also realized they could bring their businesses to correctional facilities where they could pay workers (slave laborers) even less.
I believe prisons are a space for state-sponsored terrorism. I believe that prisons are a breeding ground for gang violence including but not limited to, violence, rape and other crimes. If the goal of prisons is to punish people for the crimes they have committed so they will become a “better person” when they get out, as a society we are not doing a successful job. If the majority of people in prisons are there for non-violent property and drug crimes, how is putting these people in an environment that breeds this kind of behavior helping anyone? Well, forcing these prisoners into this “prison culture” causes them to continue this behavior when they get out and then get caught again getting wrapped up in the cycle of the system which some including myself believe this is intentional.
