Research Theory: Prison Industrial Complex

Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) is the term frequently used for the mass imprisonment the United States has been using over the past few decades for the control of crime and the fulfillment of personal interests of industries offering surveillance, economic and political solutions in the same matter. The recent mass incarceration of the US has dragged its people to prisons leading to an uprise in crimes and criminals abruptly and creating a new network of people that are overly crowded within the available number of prisons and facilities. This paper aims to formulate a theory paper. The research question would be identified based upon the foundations laid by literature review, a proposed methodology for defining the interdisciplinary research for the issue described, and suggesting future research after drawing upon the results and conclusions.

Research Question

The identified research question for the research paper is as follows:

Prison industrial complex: Is it meant to rehabilitate, or is it only for corporate profits?

The intersection of government concerns and the United States justice system is debatable to date since the ultimate benefit of incarceration is still vague in terms of rehabilitation and refinement of the prisoners. Various departments benefit from incarceration in the country, like probation offices, transportation firms, food companies, and their deliveries, court caretakers, service providers, and police departments, etc. (Stephens, 2021). Suppose the same prisoners are released to society when their imprisonment tenure is over. In that case, it is hard to discern whether they would remain a threat to the community, recidivate or become better human beings. Hence, the societal impacts of the released prisoners from the prison industrial complex are not researched widely and explicitly regarding its consequences. This paper would make original contributions in this context so that personal benefits of the prison privatization businesses and the government should be given a re-thought process.

Problem Statement

It has been widely reported that the current estimate of the US prisoners is approximately 2.3 million people, with an increment of 4.5 million people going for probation (Tufts University, n.a.). Despite representing only 5% of the entire worlds population, the country has the highest number of imprisoned people globally. It could be deduced that 20% of its population is behind the prison walls.

Several factors contribute to the upsurge in confinement over the previous years. The first and foremost being the use of drugs within the region for which 31 million people were arrested that were alleged to be involved in the drug war (Tufts University, n.a.). Moreover, it is assumed to be a center for holding the migrants for non-documentation and other relevant concerns (Tufts University, n.a.). The immigration detention centers have been privatized for the political and social interests of some agencies where racism is witnessed. Blacks are under probation more than the Whites crossing borders. Though detainees are provided private facilities where they have to spend a great amount of time before they can lead a normal life within the state, the strictness of access to food, healthcare facilities, and maintenance is observed for maximizing shareholders stakes. Also, the overall crime rate has escalated, which resulted in increased incarceration in the United States. It seems as if someone has released a great number of crooks to the community that is committing any possible kind of crime such as sex trafficking, drugs, massive killings, burglary, cybercrime, domestic violence, harassment, child abuse, rape, robbery, terrorism, and violent crimes, etc.

Systematic detention of people has been observed in prison industrial complex contributing to the obvious racial discrimination in the United States. People of color were imprisoned in double numbers compared to the Whites (Tufts University, n.a.). The racial disparity has been an evident factor of the US culture since the days when Blacks were first brought to the region for slavery. Black men have been behind bars in higher numbers than White men for the drug offense charges, regardless of their age.

Literature Review

There are three types of prison privatization business: convict leasing, piece pricing, and privatization (Schultz, 2015). During the subsequent years of the 1800s, the landowners of South paid prisons the lease for allowing the prison inmates to work on their lands and railway roads. Piece pricing was used in prison where cruel and violent inmates were imprisoned, and the American states had complete physical control. Privatization started when the businesses wanted to have prison inmates, and for that, they made contracts with the prisons to provide full facilities. This officially took a turn towards creating the first formal adult private prisons in the United States. The federal government made the private prisons accountable for the prisoners accommodation, administration, and management.

The war on drugs started by the US-led to the mass incarceration of drug-abusing offenders across the country in the early 1970s (Andre Douglas Pond Cummings, 2012). Different publishings in this area suggest that the growth in mass incarcerations in the US prisons depended on the theories of drug incarcerations related to the drug war and parole violations (Pfaff, 2015). However, these two theories could easily be discredited since the rise in parole admission could be balanced with the parole discharges. Also, drug incarcerations due to drug abuse were relatively small compared to all of the other types of crimes and their relevant incarcerations. The third theory was presented in the same publishing that drug offenders remained in prison for a short period despite representing the large share of the population coming fastly to the prisons.

<>The above theory could be related to prison re-admissions to keep the prison population substantial. For the same concern, research has been conducted stating it as a structural re-entry industry for deliberately maintaining the status of the prison industrial complex. A recently published article declared after conducting semi-structured interviews with the re-admitted individuals and the service providers for those admissions that there are systematic issues within this setting called prison re-entry industry (PRI) that does not allow the individuals to establish themselves as normal individuals within the society and re-established (Ortiz & Jackey, 2019). The issues encompass the lack of facilities for preparing those individuals to become settled in the outside society, remaining under strict supervision even after they are released that serve as a barrier for them to perform substantially and positively in the society, and impossibilities for finding employment opportunities as they have not been prepared before the release. These complications result in a societal disparity in finding jobs, enhance social suppression, and giving rise to inequality leading to involvement in crime again and high rates of recidivism,...…discussed extensively in the literature review, privatization companies, which are considered the main profit earners, have been able to give jobs to thousands of incarcerated individuals within the prison walls. Still, they have done it at cheap labor rates. Though it seems reasonable to give them employment opportunities but not according to their hard work and knowledge level would be undoubtedly prejudicial.

Although correction within the walls was supported by the education and healthcare facilities provided by private companies, which in return gave their own business a large boom, it does not suggest whether the facilities provided to them helped in their release and becoming better individuals for the outside society once they were discharged after their imprisonment term was over. Recidivism rates still sky-rocketed as preparation for adjustments in the outside world was missing. When excessive cramming within the prisons led to a shortage of beds and medical facilities, the justice system and corrective prison procedures were doubtful. The sentencing and release policies were controversial since the repercussions of these regulations created analogies such as increased violence within prison walls and less rehabilitation in truism.

If ever there was any preparation provided within the jail walls, it was related to the re-admissions. Since the recidivism rates kept on rising, it was most likely that the individuals who could not get jobs in the outside world were unable to adjust and returned to criminal activities to provide for themselves and their families. The crime rates worsened that were committed by the segregated races specified earlier. The racial disparity and social inequality kept rising above par. Modern slavery could be termed on this basis as immigration difficulties are prevalent. People at the detention centers are offered to the private companies for cheap labor in employment openings to run their accommodating homes at the respective centers.

Conclusion

The research question for the current theory paper was Prison industrial complex: Is it meant to rehabilitate or is it only for corporate profits? which has been scrutinized in the light of literature review. The formerly done scholarly work has presented highlights in political science, law, criminology studies, cultural studies, and economics. These disciplines have been masterfully at play by the government and profit-making businesses, who have been the service providers for the privatized prisons for long.

Racism, detention centers for undocumented immigrants, absence of preparation plans for prison release, high recidivism rates after discharge from jail, and re-admissions in the same colossal quantities are some of the concerns that have become question marks on the United States corrective systems.

The proposed methodology to probe further into the research question is a qualitative study to study the opinions, attitudes, and stances of the targeted races that have been massively incarcerated, specifically at prison industrial complexes. An interdisciplinary linking could be made by adding survey questions related to the classified disciplines from the literature review.

Recommendations for Future Research

Although the literature review presented in this paper aimed to answer most of the research questions questions, previously done scholarly work still falls short in answering some of the major concerns, and some gaps are identified. Based on the results and conclusion, the two additional research projects that would be pertinent to responding to the research question could be:

i. The societal impact of released prisoners from the prison…