The Prison Industrial Complex Controlling our Gente’s Mind & Body

The Prison Industrial Complex The prison industrial complex is an interweaving of private business and government interests. Its two fold purpose is profit and social control. Its public rationale is the fight against crime. Business Venture; Public and Private: the Crisis (surplus land, labor, capital, and state capacity) Social Control: Society of Fear; War on Drugs and the lower classes. Crime: 1-100th Rule( Crack vs. Cocaine), Mandatory Minimums, Three Strike “The prison industrial complex (PIC) is a complicated system situated at the intersection of governmental and private interests that uses prisons as a solution to social, political, and economic problems. The PIC depends upon the oppressive systems of racism, classism, sexism, and homophobia. It includes human rights violations, the death penalty, industry and labor issues, policing, courts, media, community powerlessness, the imprisonment of political prisoners, and the elimination of dissent.” Evans & Golberg, PIC and the Global Economy

An Imprisoned World http://www.prisonpolicy.org/articles/notequal.html

The Prison Industrial Complex The United States currently incarcerates a higher share of its population than any other country in the world. The U.S. incarceration rate – 753 per 100,000 people in 2008 – is now about 240 percent higher than it was in 1980. In 2008, one of every 48 working-age men (2.1 percent of all working- age men) was in prison or jail. In 2008, the U.S. correctional system held over 2.3 million inmates, about two-thirds in prison and about one-third in jail. Non-violent offenders make up over 60 percent of the prison and jail population. Nonviolent drug offenders now account for about one- fourth of all offenders behind bars, up from less than 10 percent in 1980. During the last two decades, as the criminal justice system came to assume a larger proportion of state discretionary dollars, state spending on prisons grew at six times the rate of state spending on higher education. http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/incarceration-2010-06.pdf

Growth of Prison Population http://www.prisonpolicy.org/graphs/incarceration1925-2008.html

The Faces of the Prison System Males Females Black non-Hispanic males had an imprisonment rate (3,119 per 100,000 U.S. residents) that was more than 6 times higher than white non-Hispanic males (487 per 100,000), and almost 3 times higher than Hispanic males (1,193 per 100,000) Blacks are 6.5 and “Hispanic” are 2.5 times more likely than white males to be incarcerated. One in 703 black females was imprisoned, compared to about 1 in 1,987 white females and 1 in 1,356 Hispanic females. Black and “Hispanic” women are far more likely to be incarcerated for longer rates than white women. http://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/bjs/p09.pdf

Update on Incarceration rate, Male http://www.prisonpolicy.org/articles/notequal.html

The Prisons of the “Golden Gulag”, California As of December 31, 2008, the total population of adult offenders, both in prison and on parole, was 316,229. Of this number, the breakdown is as follows: • In-prison population- 171,085 • Active parole population - 123,597 • Non-CDCR jurisdiction (other state/federal insitutions, out-of-state parole) - 1,792 • Out-to-court and escape population - 2,285 • Parolee-at-large population - 17,470 http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/News/2009_Press_Releases/docs/CDCR_Annual_Report.pdf---

The Population of the California Prisons Nearly a third of all prisoners and paroles are from Los Angeles County (almost 100,000 men and women) As of December 2009, the ratio of prisoners and paroles in California is well over 300 per 100000 people. Over 40,000 people are second and third strikers More and more underage “criminals” are being tried as adults or are given longer Juvenile sentences (up to 40 months). Nearly two-thirds of people thrown into prison go back to prison (recidivism) The average age for most prisoners and paroles is mid-30’s and early 40’s http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/News/2009_Press_Releases/docs/CDCR_Annual_Report.pdf---

The Cost of Prisons VS. Education Prisoner Education The average annual cost per california inmate in 2008-09 was $48,536. Of this, aproximately $16,000 per inmate goes toward medical, mental health, and dental care. This year, California ranked 43rd among the states and Washington, D.C.; last year it was 46th. The $8,852 spent per pupil in 2008 – before the full impact of the recession hit California’s schools – was $2,371 below the national average of $11, 223. http://toped.svefoundation.org/2011/01/12/now-43rd-in-per-student-spending/

The Cost of Prisons VS. Education In 1980-81, for example, California spent $604.2 million on the state’s prison system, equal to 2.9 cents out of every state dollar. In 2010-11, the state spent an estimated $9.6 billion on corrections, equal to 10.5 cents out of every state dollar. Corrections spending increased by nearly 1,500 percent between 1980-81 and 2010-11, more than four times the rate of General Fund spending as a whole. In 1980-81,for example, California spent $10.7 billion on education, equal to 50.5 cents out of every state dollar (Figure 2). In 2010-11, the state spent an estimated $47.5 billion on education, equal to 51.9 cents out of every state dollar (Figure 3). Specifically: • 39.2 cents out of every dollar – $35.8 billion – supported elementary and secondary education in 2010-11, up from 35.3 cents out of every dollar – $7.4 billion – in 1980-81. • 12.7 cents out of every dollar – $11.6 billion – supported higher education in 2010-11, down from 15.2 cents out of every dollar – $3.2 billion – in 1980-81. http://www.cbp.org/pdfs/2011/110728_Where_Do_State_Tax_Dollars_Go_pb.pdf http://www.cbp.org/pdfs/2011/111012_Decade_of_Disinvestment_%20SFF.pdf

Los Angeles & Education 69 of the 90 low- performing schools (67 percent) are in neighborhoods with the highest incarceration rates. By contrast, 59 of the city’s 86 high- performing schools (68 percent) are in neighborhoods with the lowest incarceration rates http://www.naacp.org/pages/misplaced-priorities

Environmental Racism Laura Pulido “Environmental Racism”

Environmental Racism and Prisons Laura Pulido noted that as a result of racism carried out on different siting, intent, and scale, Latinos and Blacks suffer disproportionately from the environmental racism. This, in turn, creates the conditions for what society deems as a “ghetto”; an area that is marginalized due to its perceived “threat and danger”. “The Ghetto is reflected upon Prisons and Prisons are reflected upon the Ghetto”-LOIC WACQUANT Segregation, marginalization, criminalization, racialization, incarceration, loss of freedom, loss of communication, therefore becoming a disposable member of the society. LOÏC WACQUANT Deadly Symbiosis: When Ghetto and Prison Meet and Mesh Rethinking Environmental Racism: White Privilege and Urban Development in Southern California Laura Pulido