Prison Industrial Complex Research Paper

Words: 2946
Pages: 12

Fen Truitt ES 461/561 17/3/2024 Dr. Thompson.

Evolution of the Prison Industrial Complex.

Like the concept of the military-industrial complex, mass incarceration is not new to the majority of Americans, but the idea of a ‘prison-industrial complex’ is, along with the complexity at which it operates and how it began. It is this prison-industrial complex, which is something that few Americans have an understanding of and why it is that everyone knows that people of color, especially African Americans, tend to be imprisoned and brutalized at disproportionate rates, but very few understand why this happens and what causes it. If this system was supposedly designed to target people of color, especially African Americans, who would benefit from
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A clear example of criminalization through labeling can be seen immediately after the American-stated Spanish-American War, where the U.S. turns the Philippines into a colony of its own. The Philippines who resisted a second wave of colonization were labeled as “bandits” and terrorists by U.S. officials, while deliberately ignoring their actual motivations for their own freedom and independence (Weber 71). As a form of punishment that the U.S. used for anti-colonialists, they were sent long distances away from their communities and families. This very practice can be seen today with constant prison transfers. Many Americans are already aware of who is most likely to be arrested, and even killed at disproportionate rates, but few understand the extent of this complex system and who truly benefits from it. Many people constantly hear how people of color, especially Black and brown people in the United States, have struggled in the face of law enforcement in one way or another. But there is another factor that many do not always consider. There are also whites who are impacted by law enforcement operations, who also tend to be poor. In the case of