THE FORTRESS ECONOMY

The Economic Role of the
U.S. Prison System

by Alexander C. Lichtenstein and Michael A. Kroll

Edited by Rachael Kamel

*

A Project of the
American Friends Service Committee
‘The Fortress Economy: The Economic Role of the
U.S. Prison System

by Alexander C. Lichtenstein and
Michael A. Kroll

Edited by Rachael Kamel
Designed by Gerry Henry

Printed by the American Friends
Service Committee printshop.

ISBN: 0-910082-16-2

THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

Introduction

hen T moved (o Philadelphia

in 1981, T was aware that
among the city’s historical claims to
fame was its designation as the
“cradle of the penitentiary.” Al-
though the building is 1o longer
standing, what generally is regarded
as the first *‘penitentiary house”” was
put into use 200 years ago, in 1790.
Constructed on the grounds of the
former Walnut Street Jai, it was a
building devoted 1o the solitary
confinement of convicted felons, The
shetoric of that era was that convicts
should be kept away from evil
influences in the environment, to
reflect on their sins and become
penitent.

‘The founding of the penitentiary
was a key event in the long and
troubled history of the U.S. prison
system—a system that now is univer-
sally agreed 10 be in crisis. Not long
after setlling in Pennsylvania, T was
asked 10 serve on a statewide task
force 1o address the severe and
‘worsening crowding that was occur-
ring in prisons and jails throughout
the Commonwealth. Despite the pres-
ence of a distinguished array of

criminal justice experts and state and
Tocal officials, the scope of the task
force’s deliberations was confined
10 a very narrow range. It was made
quite clear that we were 1o accept as
given the policies and practices that
had helped push prison and jail
populations 10 higher and. hi

levels. Questions about the long
term, about what the prison system
‘was accomplishing and where it was
leading us, were not addressed.

Across the country today, similar
comittees are meeting o consider
how 10 cope with the dramatically
increasing prison and jail population.
Most often such groups restrict their
focus 10 the immediate crisis. As a
result, they 100 fail 10 take a hard
look at the social forces underlying
current trends—or the likely results
of continuing on the same course.

Tt is increasingly clear that these
issues are far 100 important to be left
in the hands of the small set of
officials and administrators who now
are deliberating about them. A far
broader group of people needs (o
become involved, especially repre-
sentatives of those who are. most
affected by prisons—poor communi-

THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

ties and communities of color. As a
society, we are in urgent need of
vigorous and creative dialogue about
the problems of crime and public
safety and the uses and impact of the
prison system.

“This booklet on the economic role
of the prison system i offered as a
contribution to that dialogue. It s one:
of many resources and activities
being launched in 1990 by the
American Friends Service Commit-
tee, through its project, 200 Years
of the Penitentiary: Breaking Chains,
Forging Justice.” This project has
been undertaken in response 1o the
rapidly spiraling increase in impris-
onment and the decply troubling
problems of crime, violence, and
drug abuse affecting communities of
color throughout the United States.
In a range of local and mational
forums, the project will bring to-
gether leaders and activists from
these and other communities to share:
their experiences and perspectives
and to strategize solutions 10 the
crisis.

The development of this booklet
reflects AFSC's firm conviction that
any effort to examine the prison
system must encompass the social,
economic, and political context within
which that system operates. It also

reflects the understanding that the
stated purposes of prisons are not the
only functions they serve.

For myself, T will never forget my
reaction on first walking through the
Baltimore City Jail on a hot sum-
mer's day. “This is a modem-day
poorhouse,” T thought, *“and it is a
poorhouse filled with young Black
men.” This and other encounters
with prisons and prisoners have
moved me (0 seek a better under-
standing of who goes to prison and
why, as well as of the effects of
imprisonment, both on those con-
fined and on the broader society.

Throughout their 200-year history,
prisons have fulfilled a variety of
unstated and ofien unconscionable
functions. Such institutions always
have done at once much more and
much less than they are said o do.
This booklet helps bring into the light
some of the unacknowledged func-
tions of prisons, inviting debate on
their acceptability and encouraging
exploration of more constructive al-
tematives.

—M. Kay Harris
Department of Criminal Justice
Temple University

THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

The Fortress Economy

T necontemporay United States,

few topics are more volatle than
crime and the problem of how society
should respond 10 it. The fear of
street crime leaves countless people
trapped in their homes. Tllegal drugs
and the violence they engender are
‘widely considered our society's most
serious problem. For politicians, noth-
ing spells ruin so quickly as being
perceived as *“soft on crime.”

In this atmosphere, 2 chorus of
voices is demanding that the criminal
justice system “‘get tough” with
offenders. More prisons, longer jail
terms, fewer restraints on the actions
of police and the courts: these are the
measures that are proposed to make
our strets safe and curb the violence
in our daily lives.

Itis unfashionable in the extreme
to_question whether such policies
will actually work. Those who do are
often dismissed as fools, *‘bleeding
hearts" who care more for criminals
than for their victims. Yet the ques-
tions demand to be asked. Taxpayers
are called upon 10 spend billions of
dollars every year o build bigger
prisons and fock up more and more

of our fellow citizens. Is this money
well spent? Whose pockets is it going
into? Will it bring justice t0 offenders
or security (o the law-abiding?

These questions about money are
far from trivial. As a way of protect-
ing the public or stopping crime, the
US. prison system can only be scen
as amonumental mistake—an insane
juggemaut whose only rule is 10 keep
‘growing. But when prisons are ana-
Iyzed as economic institutions—in
terms of both their own structure and
their function within the larger
ety—they begin to make a grim kind
of sense.

This parphlet explores some of
the economic aspects of the prison
system. It examines who gocs o
prison and why—and how this re-
Tates 1o larger trends within the U.S.
economy. It also takes a look at the
economics of the prison indusiry
itself. This approach can teach us a
ot about what is wrong with our
prisons. Most important, it can sug-
gest some directions for more just—
‘and more effective— solutions (0 the
problems of crime and violence.

THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

‘‘A Convincing Case of Failure’’

‘mprisonment s usually justified

by appeals 10 one of two philoso-
phiés: protecting the public_or
rehabilitating the prisoner. By either
standard, however, the evidence is
overwhelming that prisons do not
work.

‘Those states that have the highest
budget for law enforcement—
including courts, prisons, probation,
and parole—also have the highest
levels of crime. If there is any
empirically established relationship
between crime and imprisonment, it
i that prisons foster crime.

‘This is not 1o say that prisons
function mainly as *‘schools for
crime,” although it is partly true that
people in prison do learn new crimi-
nal skills. Far more important is that
prisons are violent institutions which
breed violent individuals. In the
words of psychiatrist Seymour Hal-
Teck, “If one had systematically and
diabolically tried 1o create mental
illness, [one] could probably have
constructed no better system than the
American prison system.”

Even the staunchest advocates of
repressive *“law-and-order” policies
have hardly a good word for prisons.

‘The former chief justice of the U.S.
Supreme Court, Warren Burger, once.
asked rhetorically, ‘“What business
enterprise couldconceivably con-
tinue with the rate of ‘recall’ of its
“products’ that we see with respect
... our prisons?” The answer is
obvious: none. Likewise, former U.S.
President Richard Nixon, known in

We hold these truths to be
selt-evident: That all men are
created equal; that they are
endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights; that
‘among these are life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness.

—US. Declaration of Independence,
July 4, 1776

his day for his extremely conserva-
tive views, once termed prisons “a
‘convincing case of failure.”

AU present, the United States has
the third highest rate of incarceration
in the industrialized world, surpassed
only by South Africa and the Soviet
Union. Nonetheless, crime continues
10 plague our society (o a degree
unknown i other countries—

THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

countries which do not come close
10 our rate of imprisonment.

In this context, the image of the
““bleeding heart liberal”—that univer-
sal object of scom—is one that
deserves particular scrutiny. Implicit
in this characterization is an assump-
tion that public safety and social
justice are somehow ‘at odds—that
policies which protect the civil rights
of prisoners or challenge racism in

the prison system cannot really be
effective in stopping crime.

A far more compelling case can
be made that social justice is a
requirement for public safety. Ra-
cism and economic bias are structural
features of the U.
Understanding
yield important_insights into_ why
that system functions so poorly (0
protect the public.

prison system.

‘Who Goes to Prison—And Who

Does Not?

tudies have shown that more than

90 percent of the adult population
has_committed offenses that_are
punishable by imprisonment. Few,
however, actually go to prison.

Contrary 10 popular belief, the
Seriousness of a crime is not the
most crucial element in predicting
who goes 10 prison and who does
not. Society’s losses from *‘white-
collar crime” far exceed the eco-
nomic impact of all burglaries, rob-
beries, larcenies, and auto_thefts
combined. Nonetheless the former
class of criminals are far less likely

1080 10 jail than the atter. One study
found, for example, that 53 percent
of low-income defendants received

Equal Justice Under Law

— Motto carved over the US. Supreme
Court bilding

prison sentences, compared to only
26 percent of high-income defen-
dants.

‘The violence of a crime s another
way of measuring its seriousness.
‘Are prisons mainly reserved for the
dangerously violent? The answer is

THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

again no. Well over half of all
prisoners were convicted of crimes
that did not include violence, such
asburglary, larceny, drug possession,
or disturbing the peace.

Blackmen born in the U.S. and
fortunate enough to live past the
age of eighteen are conditioned
to accept the inevitability of
prison. For most of us, it simply
looms as the next phase in a
sequence of humiliations.

— George Jackson, Soledad Brother, 1970

What does determine who goes to
n? A large part of the answer is
certainly race. Today, for example,
African-American males are 6 per-
cent of the U.S. population, yet
nearly 50 percent of prison inmates.
‘The California Youth Authority im-
prisons more than 9000 youngsters,
more than any other jurisdiction in
the country. Some 75 percent are
young people of color. (San Jose
Mercury News, 19 February 1989.)
Detailed breakdowns for different
communities of color are difficult to
determine, in part because of the way
‘government statistics are gathered.
Alisting of the total state and federal
prison population for 1987 gave no
separate figures for Latinos; that

same year, Latinos were listed as 14
‘percentof the inmates of county jails,
a number roughly double their pro-
portion in the population. (Source-
book of Criminal Justice Statistics,
1988.) Native Americans are gener-
ally listed as 1 percent or less of the
prison population, but they 100 are
imprisoned at a vastly dispropor-
tionate. rate, and prisons have a
crippling impact on Native American
communities.

Nationwide, the rate of imprison-
ment for African-Americans is nine
times that for Euro-Americans. In ten
states, all in the North, the incarcera-
tion rate for_African-Americans is
more than fifteen times that for
whiles,

Another striking indicator of institu-
tional racism is the lengths of prison
terms. When time served is compared
for similar offenses—including first-
time- offenders—African-Americans
serve far longer sentences than whites.
In the federal prison system, sen-
tences for African-Americans are 20
pescent longer for similar crimes. If
time served by African-Americans
were reduced 10 parity with whites,
the federal system would require
3000 fewer prison cells—enough o
empty six of their newest 500-bed
prisons.

THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

Steal a pair of shoes and go to
prison; steal a railroad and go
1o the U.S. Senate.

— Mother Jones

While 3 percent of adult white
‘males are under some type of correc-
tional control (incarceration, proba-
tion, or parole), for adult African-
American males the figure rises t0
10 percent. Black males have an 18
percent chance of serving time in a
juvenile o adult prison at some time
in their lives; white males have a 3
percent chance, (Bureau of Justice
Statitics, *“Report to the Nation on
Crime and Justice," 1987.)

Women make up only 5 percent
of the total U.S. prison and jail
population. Their numbers, however,
are even more heavily drawn from
communities of color. More than 60
percent of incarcerated women are
Alfrican-American or Latina. In the
1980s, the rate of imprisonment for
women has grown even faster than
for men—paralleling the dispropor-
tionate growth of the numbers of
‘women living in poverty. Most women
prisoners were convicted of shoplift-
ing, prostitution, or other economic
crimes. (Federal Probation, March
1986.)

Such institationalized racism has
been a feature of the U.S. prison
system since its inception. In 1796,
the New York legislature voted on
the same day 10 free all slaves
residing in the state and to authorize:
the state’s fist prison. In 1833,
French writer Alexis de Tocqueville
reported that African-Americans ac-
counted for 25 percent of U.S. prison
inmates, although their percentage
of the total population was ' far
smaller than it s today.

In this context it is significant that
the Thirteenth Amendment 10 the
US. Constitution, which abolished
slavery, carved out one exception,
permilting involuntary labor *‘as pun-
ishment for crime.” In the South,
after the Civil War, the chain gang
and convict lease quickly became the
dominant forms of punishment, Pris-
oners were sold (0 the highest bidder
and worked in coal mines, brick-
yards, or wrpentine camps. Others
were used by the states to work on
badly needed improvements to roads
and other public works. Over 90
percent of these Southern convics
were African-American.

Nonetheless, while racismis clearly
an important force in the construction
of the U.S. prison population, it is
obviously not the only one. Even
though people of color are impris-

THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

oned at a_disproportionate rate, a
‘majority of prison inmates are still
whites. To fully appreciate the func-

tioning of the prison system, we
‘must also understand the impact of
economic class.

Jailing the Unemployed

cross all racial groups, prisoners

are drawn from the poorest
sectors of society. A large percentage
are unemployed at the time of their
arrest or have only sporadic employ-
ment. Of those with jobs, many have
incomes near or below the poverty
level. Seventy-two percent of prison
inmates and 60 pescent of jail in-
mates have not completed high school;
‘many are iliterate. (Bureau of Justice
Statistics, **Report 10 the Nation on
Crime and Justice,” 1987.)

‘The social policies of the 1980
caused an unprecedented increase in
the numbers of people living in
poverty in the United States, as well
as a widening gap between the
incomes and living standards of the
rich and poor. Throughout this entire
period, prison populations grew rap-
idly. With budgets slashed for every
type of social service, prisons now

stand out s the country’s principal
government program for the poor.

Most of the people behind bars
have committed economic crimes. A
sampling of prison admissions in
1983 revealed that close 10 49 percent
of all convictions were for property
offenses like burglary, larceny, or
auto thelt. Another 14 percent were

If you go back in history and
plot the population of all pris-
ons. ... and compare it to all the
other variables you can think of,
you will find a positive correla-
tion only with unemployment.
The higher the rate of jobless-
ness, the higher the rate of
prison commitments. There is
no question about it.

—Norman Carlson, Director, US. Bureau
of Prisons

THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic ole of the U.S. Prison System

for robbery—which, though classi-
fied as a violent crime because it
involves taking property from a
‘person, is nevertheless economically
motivated.

‘The statstical link between unem-
ployment or underemplogment and
imprisonment s bome out in the
demographic characteristics of prison
populations. In 1983, 47 percent of
all those jailed (about 110,000 peo-
ple) were unemployed at the time of
their arrest. Seventy-one percent
eamed less than $10,000 a year. State:
prison populations reveal a similar
link. Tn Florida, for example, of
nearly 30,000 people imprisoned in
1986, barely half (52 percent) were
employed full-time at the time of
their arrest. Nearly half eamed less
than $500 a month. (Annual Report,
Florida Department of Corrections,
1986.)

101976, the Joint Economic Commit-
tee of Congress heard testimony that
there was “‘wide agreement that
‘unemployment creates economic and
‘psychological stress that frequently
is manifested in criminal behavior.”
The commiltiee also heard figures
showing that each 1 percent increase
in unemployment sustained over a
six-year period could be associated
with an increase of more than 3000
new state prison admissions. (M.

Harvey Brenner, “‘Estimating the
Social Costs of National Economic
Policy,” Joint Economic Committee
of Cangress, 1976.) From this per-
spective, prisons may be scen as

The state is giving us two pris-
ons. That’s 2000 jobs! That's like
apple pie.

—Ed McGrew (president, Chamber of
Commerce, Bl Centro, California)

warehouses for people who have no
place in the economic order.

Prison inmates are mostly part of
what is known as the “‘secondary
labor market."* Such people tend 10
work intermitiently at low-paying
jobs and see liule hope for change
in their future. The slightest misfor-
tune may drive entire families into
desperate poverty. The contemporary
US. economy relies on the presence
of a large pool of such temporary,
underpaid workers to fill the dead-
end service jobs that are increasingly
coming o dominate the labor market.
As fewer manufacturing jobs are
available, the possibilties for stable,
secure employment and economic
advancement are shrinking for all
working people.

In such an economy, high unemploy-
ment rates benefit employers who

THE FORTRESS ECONOMY : The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

offer minimum-wage jobs, by ensur-
ing the presence of a flexible. pool
of less-skilled workers. Those who
move in and out of such jobs are
often the same people who fill the
jails and prisons. As the poor become
ever more marginalized in the econ-
omy, their numbers in prison grow
accordingly.

Tronically, in some cases prisons
have been touted as a solution to
cconomic decline, especially in rural
areas. Prisons, filled with unem-
ployed people of color from the inner
cities, are being sold to economically
depressed rural communities a5 a
source of jobs for their growing
numbers of unemployed—who are
usually whites. A new corrections
center can be a real economic boost
10 a rural community, especially if
the. community lacks a major local
industry,” says William Choguette,
a senior vice-president of Gilbane
Building Company, an architectural
firm specializing in prison construc-
tion.

‘The Federal Bureau of Prisons has
recently published a brochure on the
value of prisons (o rural communi-
ties. **With local economies ailing
in many parts of the country,” the
bureau states, *‘local leaders often

For every person who goes 1o
prison, two people don't go to
college. For every day a person
twenty children eat
d of proteln.
—American Prisons and Jails, 1978, Vol. |

see a potential federal prison as a
recession-proof economic base." (Ac-
quiring New Prison Sites: The Fed-
eral Experience.) In fact, prisons arc
more than *‘recession-proof””: they
are the one industry that benefits
from recession. In 1983, a year of
deep economic recession, the Bureau
of Labor Statistics ranked corrections
a5 the twellth fastest growing occupa-
tion in the United States.

‘The apparent economic boost of-
fered by prisons is deceptive, how-
ever, because it s artificial and
nonproductive. In this respect, pris-
ons are similar (0 military bases.
Prison jobs are hazardous and low-
‘paying; according to the Corrections
Yearbook, in 1987 the average entry-
Tevel salary for a prison guard was
barely $15,000. Rural communities
quickly become dependent on the
prison, which will never produce
revenue or expand a community’s
economic base.

THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

Prisons and the Social Fabric

discussion above is not in-
tended 10 minimize the serious-
ness of crime, whether violent or
not. The point is rather that swelling
the prison population has failed to
reduce crime. The racial and eco-
nomic bias built into the prison
system also works against crime
ictims, Poor people and people of
color are also the most. frequent
victims of crime, and they stand to
suffer the most from repressive poli-
cles that fail (0 stop, and in many
ways fuel, criminal activities.

Prisons illustrate how racial and
economic discriminationreinforce
one another. As noted above, prison
inmates are drawn from the ranks of
the economically marginalized of all
races. As an institution, however,
prisons have a far greater impact on
communities of color, because of
their disproportionate representation
in prison populations.

In New York State, for example,
one outof every twenty-three African-
American males aged twenty to
thirty-four was in prison in 1985. A
California study found that seven out
of ten African-American men were
amested at least once in their early

adult years. (“Disproportionate Im-
prisonment of Blacks in the U.S.,"
National Association of Blacks in
Criminal Justice.)

‘These high incarceration rates paral-
lel the harsher impact of economic
dislocation on communities of color.
The official unemployment rate for
African-Americans, somewhere be-
tween 15 and 20 percent, is twice
that of Euro-Americans. Median in-
come for African-American families
is 56 percent that of white families.
Thirty percent of Black households
have 10 assets, surviving on what
they eam week by week. Further,
official unemployment rates signifi-
cantly underestimate the real rate of
unemployment. One study, for exam-
ple, demonstrates that at any given
time 43 percent of African-American
men are without jobs. (Tom Jo,
“*Economic Inequality: The Picture
in Black and White,” Crime and
Delinquency 33, April 1987.)

Al of these forces have a pro-
foundly negative effect on a commu-
nity's ability (o sustain family life.
Women are increasingly left alonc
10 face the responsibilities of eco-
nomic survival and child-rearing.

u
THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

They, 100, have litle access (0 stable
employment, while at the same time
social services of all types have been
cut almost (0 nothing.

Of those women who fall under
the control of the prison system, a
large proportion are single mothers.
‘Thus another effect of prisons is the
placing of countless children into
foster homes or juvenile detention
centers. The economic costs of main-
taining s many children and youth
‘under state control are very high. The
‘human costs, sretching on into future:
generations, are incalculable.

More than with any other group
in’society, the cycle of impoverish-
‘ment and imprisonment has a devas-
tating impact on young people of
color. In 1984, more than 46 percent
of African-American children lived
below the poverty level. While the
overall incarceration rate for juve-
niles was 185 per 100,000, that for
Latino youth was seven times higher,
at 481 per 100,000; for Black yout,
a staggering 810 per 100,000 (Source-
book of Criminal Justice Statistics,
1985)

‘The economics of the ghetto mean
that for survival, parallel illegal
economies have sprung up, further
reinforcing the pattems of crime and
imprisonment. ““Kids sell drugs to
get money,” asserts San Francisco

Sheriff Mike Hemnessey. “I(’s that
simple.” He recommends an eco-
nomic recovery plan along the lines
of the New Deal’s Civilian Conserva-
tion Corps and other government
jobs programs as the only way to
redevelop the inner cities. “‘We need
10 take the millions of dollars slated
for construction and operation of
prisons and at least match it with job
raining and placement programs,”
says the sheriff. “If we, as a nation,
tried as hard to create job opportuni-
ties for unemployed youth as the drug
sellers try 10 sell drugs, the batle
‘would be more than half won."”

It is unrealistic to expect [ex-
prisoners] to function as autono-
mous and independent individu-
als in society after their release.
— “What Prisons Do o People;” New York
State Defenders Association, May 1985

Instead, many young people give
up early on a fruitless search for
meaningful employment and eco-
nomic advancement, drop out of an
alienating school environment, and
look to crime as their oily path to
economic gain. Under these circum-
stances, jails, juvenile homes, and
prisons often play a more powerful

]

THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

socializing role for thousands of
young people than school, family,
or work.

In contemporary U.S. society, aliena-
tion and drugs are a critical problem
for all youth, not just young people
of color. A major new study of
350,000 young people found that
drug and alcohol use by white
students actually exceeded that by
African-American youth, in_some
cases by a very wide margin. *“In no
school studied so far, whether fed
by low-income housing projects or
affluent suburbs, [was] alcohol and
drug use as high among Black
students as_among white,” says
Marsha Keith Schuchard, research
director for the Parents’ Resource
Institute for Drug Education (PRIDE),
which conducted the study. (Philadel-
phia Inquirer, 19 December 1989.)

‘This finding exposes the racism
of media images that depict drugs as
mainly an inner city problem. One
effect of such false images is that
they build support among whites for
expansion of the prison system. As
a result, the social fabric is damaged
for white communities as well—
‘because public resources are directed
toward incarcerating the most margi-
nalized members of society, rather
than developing real solutions to the
myriad problems posed by alcohol
and drug abuse.

‘While substance abuse may be a
‘universal problem, it is still true that
the violence engendered by the ille-
gal drug trade falls most heavily on
‘commanities of color. Prisons, mean-
‘while, are simply an added force for
violence, despair, and community
destruction.

B
THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

Dilemmas of Ex-Offenders

t San Quentin state prison in

California, when certain prison-
‘ers complete their sentences, they are.
taken, handcuffed, t0 the gate, given
5200, uncuffed, and sent alone into
the world, presumably to begin a new
life as law-abiding citizens. In real-
ity, however, ex-prisoners face tre-
‘mendous obstacles when they try o
‘become productive members of soci-
ety.

‘The prison experience does litle
10 provide a prisoner with skills or
resources to find a job outside. Prison
inmates must adapt to a world whose
survival skills are often diametrically
opposed 1o those that promote sur-
vival in the ouside world. Prison
punishes independent thinking and
action. It promotes the violent resolu-
tion of personal conflicts and breaks
apart the bonds of friends and family.
Prisons foster dependency, idleness,
violence, and the deterioration of
human relationships—all of which
make reintegration nto freedom much
more difficult,

““A person coming out of prison
has four choices,” notes a 1982 study
by the New York-based Vera Insti-
tute of Justice. *“He (sic) can get a
job, which will be difficult; be can

£0 0n welfare, which is demeaning
and difficul; . . . he can commit
crimes; or he can dic. .. . If jobs are
not accessible, more will opt for

Tragically, the statistics bear out
this conclusion. An estimated 62.5
percent of prisoners released in 1983
in eleven states were rearested for a
felony orserious misdemeanor within
three years of discharge. OF released
prisoners twenty-five years old or
less with more than ten previous
arrests, 94 percent were rearrested
within three years. (*“Recidivism of
Prisoners Released in 1983,"" Bureau
of Justice Statistics.)

Just think what a catastrophe it
would cause if all cons across
the country decided never to
commit another crime. Think of
how many different hands | go
through from the time I'm ar-
rested. Lots of dollars and lots
of jobs. We are your bread and
butter.

— Henry Abernathy (seving Ife in Texas
for bank robbery)

"

THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

Most people who end up in prison
‘come from environments where unem-
ployment and underemployment are
endemic, and adding the stigma of
“‘ex-con” does not enhance their
job-finding potential. A criminal re-
‘cord may serve as a legal bar from
‘many occupations and sectors of the
economy. When work is available, it
is often low-paying and sporadic.

For those ex-prisoners who do find
‘work, their median income is 50
percent lower than for the rest of the
labor force. (Money, Work, and
Crime: Experimental Evidence, Aca-
demic Press, 1980) Looking for
work without any economic cushion
promoles panic and a sense of
degradation that can trap ex-
offenders in a downward spiral.
Often they retum to economically
depressed neighborhoods and must
rely on impoverished family mem-
bers for support. Ex-prisoners are
inevitably suspects in the eyes of the
Tocal police and are therefore de-
tained, questioned, jailed, and held
at high bail whenever suspects are
needed for unsolved crimes—all fur-
ther disrupting potential employ-
meat.

Some programs, many of them
founded during the heyday of rehabilita-
tion in the 1960s, attempt to break
the cycle by providing ex-prisoners

Prisoners are commodities, and
a profit must be realized from
commodities. A lot of “good
guys” make an easy living off
the misery of us “bad guys.”

— Norman Nusser (serving twensy t0 forty
‘years in Pennsylvania for burglaries)

with wage subsidies, steering them
into training programs, helping them
find and keep jobs, and otherwise
trying 10 ease their transition back
into the free world.

But during the 1980, services to
ex-prisoners, like so many other
social programs, were gutted by
federal and state budget cuts. When
the Comprehensive Employment and
Training Act (CETA) was restruc-
wred by Congress in 1982, ex-
inmates were dropped altogether as
a target group. (**Can Ex-Offender
Job Programs Survive Reagan-
nomics?,” Corrections Magazine,
June 1982.) The cutbacks took place
during an era of severe economic
recession. As a result, increased
numbers of destitute and unskilled
prisoners were dumped into the
already glutted secondary labor mar-
ket. Scarce low-paying jobs were
their only alternative to the tempta-
tions of drug dealing and other
crimes.

5
THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

An Expensive Way to Fight

Crime

ith the nation’s inmate popula-
tion increasing at a rate of 800
prisoners per week, prison construc-
tion is booming. The Federal Bureau
of Prisons is now engaged in what it
terms *‘the largest prison expansion
program in history.” Well over 100
prisons are currently authorized o
under construction—with a price tag
of more than $70 billion in construc-
tion costs alone. Worse, according
10 the Clark Foundation, construction
costs, which alone can strain a state’s
‘budget, make up only 6 percent of
the total cost of planning, building,
financing, operating, and maintain-
ing a new prison over thirty years.
Prisons have an economic down-
side that is seldom addressed. Cor-
rections budgets deplete state coffers.
For example, individual towns may
‘gain some jobs from the $400 million
Connecticut intends to spend on 4600
‘new prison cells. At the same time,
however, almost every city in the
state is having to slash its school
expenditures due 1o statewide cut-
Dacks.
“‘Prisons are taking everything
there is,"” a Michigan state senator

recently complained. “It's the bij
gest growth industry in the entire
state”’ In California, where the
prison population has soared 250
percent since 1980, *‘the choice is
almost upon us,” writes corrections
consultant Paul de Muro, “‘between
education and health care on the one
side and prisons on the other."”

By 1991, it is projected that 10
percent of the state’s general fund
will g0 to imprison an estimated
93,000 Califomians. **We're putting
all of our resources at the wrong end
of the system,” says a high-ranking
former_official of the California
‘Youth Authority.

We are all chickens for the
colonel. Wake up before you find
yourself and your kind on some-
one’s menu.

— Larry Smith (former prisoner, California
Department of Correcions)

In the 1980s, the U.S. imprison-
ment rate nearly doubled—even
though the overall crime rate in-

6

THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Aole of the U.S. Prison System

creased by only about 7 percent.
Meanwhile, the costs of imprison-
ment are also rising quickly. Ten
years ago, per capita expenditures for
State and local criminal justice sys-
tems (the amount each woman, man,
and child in the country pays each
year to fund these systems) stood at

$95. Today, the comparable figure
s $211 per year, for a total of $51.4
billion nationwide. It is hard to argue
that these burdensome costs_have
bought public protection. (Focus,
National Council on Crime and
Delinquency, July 1989.)

‘Who Profits from Prisons?

e the benefis of prisons may
be questionable for the public,
they are undeniable for a variety of
private corporate interests. To the
$51 billion spent for state and local
criminal justice systems, we can add
the amount spent for federal criminal
justice agencies (857 billion in
1985) and private security systems
(5217 billion in 1980). The annual
total thus lies in the neighborhood
of $80 billion. (Focus, July 1989.)
By contrast, the amount of direct
Tosses 1o individuals, households,
banks, and other businesses due to
crime is approximately $10 billion
per year. In other words, for every
dollar directly lost by victims of

crime, we spend about $8 10 appre-
hend and punish the perpetrators.
Prisons take on another face if one
views them a5 generators of profit.
Some of those who profit from the
business of imprisonment are easy
toidentify, like architects. According
10 the chair of the American Institute
of Architecture’s criminal - justice
committee, there are now over 100
firms specializing in prison architec-
ture. OF the 200 companies that
exhibit their products at the annual
Congress of the American Correc-
tional Association, more than 10
percent are architectural firms. One
Michigan entrepreneur, who s mar-
keting what he describes as “do-it-

I
THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

yourself, easy-to-assemble portable
jails,” comments that *‘once this
thing goes, we're talking about scads
and scads of money.”

Architects are far from the only
people with a vested interest in the
proliferation of prisons. After success-
fully lobbying the state legislature
for new prison construction, the
former Alabama state prison com-
‘missioner, Robert Brition, moved
into the private sector to head a
for-profit medical firm that services
Alabama’s prison system. *T've al-
ways wondered what the corporate
world is like, " he said at the time.

‘The corporate world s extensively
involved with prisons. San Quentin
offers more than 250 products for
prisoners to purchase, from cupeakes
and fried pies 10 perm-cream relaxers
and pinup calendars. The wares
annually exhibited for sale to correc-
tions professionals at their conven-
tion include institutional hardware
like Aerko Intermational’s Mister
Clear-Out (“The state of the art in
Tear Gas Hand Grenades, especially
designed for indoor use™) and the
‘wares of the Peerless Handcuff Com-
pany (A Major Breakihrough in
Cuff Designl"") More prosaic prod-
ucts include the Muffin Monster
from Disposable Waste Systems, Inc.
(It will grind up into small pieces

all the things inmates put down
toilets™); the food distribution com-
pany Servomation (“‘Justice Is
Served""); and the Coca-Cola Com-
pany (“Time Goes Better with
Coke!

Rich Sikes, a former inmate at
Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary,
comments that “‘prisons arc the
mumber one industry in America,
after war.”” Actually, in many cases
the two industries overlap. The Ameri-
can Security Fence Corporation of
Phoenix, Arizona, manufactures the
double-edged coiled razor blade that
graces most prison fences (Razor
Ribbon, ““The Mean Stffl”). Ac-
cording to the company's promo-
tional literature, their top-of-the-line
product, Bayonet Barb, which ““com-
bines awesome strength . . . and
vicious effectiveness,” s *“manufac-
tured in strct accordance with Mili-

Likewise, GTE Security Systems
of Mountain View, California, sells
an electrified fence called Hot Wire.
Tested on the field of battle, the
product is advertised as being *‘s0
hot that NATO chose it for high-risk
installations; so hot that thousands
have found their place in military
installations ranging from sub-zero
Alaskan winters o sizzling Southeast
Asian summers."”

I3

THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

From architects to academics (who
study prisoners and the prison sys-
tem), from food service vendors to
health care firms, from corrections

bureaucrats to psychologists and so-
cial workers, there is a lot of money
to be made from the proliferation of
prisons.

Prisoners as Cheap Labor

he terrible idleness of prison life
can in itself become a coercive
‘mechanism. Many prisoners are anx-
ious 10 work, whatever the job or
pay, because it is better than doing
nothing, and small amounts of cash
or savings are beter than none at all.
In 1984, Unicor, the federal prison
industries, eamed a net profit of $18
million on $210 million in sales.
This profit rate was made possible
by the low level of prisoner wages,
between $044 and $1.10 an hour.
Moreover, the inexpensively pro-
duced road signs, missile compo-
neats, military blankets and supplies,
‘mailbags, and executive furniture for
‘government officials subsidized other
divisions of the federal government.
(“Washington Business,* Washingion
Post, 21 January 1985.)
Prisoners in Delaware, meanwhile,
helped save the state 525 million by

working for fifteen cents an hour
constructing a new prison. Many
states run prison industries along
similar lines, usually deducting about
80 percent of prisoners’ eamings—
already minimal—for taxes, room
and board, family support, and victim
compensation. Some prisoners are
paid for their work with *‘good-
time” credits, enabling them to buy
back their freedom over time—as in
the pre-Civil War system of inden-
wred servitude. Four states do not

I've got 1o think like Colonel
Sanders. I'l try anything. If it
works and | make a profit, 'l
stick with it.

~— Ted Nissen (former prison guard and
president of Behavioral Systems Southwest,
for-proftprison management irm)

19
THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

pay prisoners anything for produc-
tion work.

Tncreasingly, private industry is
also taking advantage of this captive
labor force. Private firms are at-
tracted 1o the prison labor pool
because prisoners are legally denied
rights that free workers enjoy. They
cannot unionize. They do not have
10 be covered by Workers® Compen-
sation, and their health care is
subsidized by the state. They are not
covered by the Fair Labor Standards
Act. They do not voice grievances,
except at the risk of incurrifig the
arbitrary discipline of prison authori-
ties. They can be hired and fired at
will, and they do not have to be paid
‘minimum wage.

Prison labor is perfect for employ-
ers with seasonal labor needs and
late-night or weekend shifts. The
same is true for industries with
short-term manufacturing cycles who
‘want 10 keep labor costs and benefits
low and hire and fire quickly and
easily. For example, TWA and Best
‘Western use prisoners to take over-
flow reservation calls. According to
the Wall Sireet Journal (12 Novem-
ber 1985), Best Westem started a
prison labor program “after having
trouble hiring people to work only
‘when needed for the overflow.”

Prison labor is now emerging as a
complement 10 the intemational move-
ment of jobs. For decades, U.S.-
based corporations have been moy
ing abroad 10 avoid high domestic
wage rates as well as labor and
environmental regulations. Now,
“'such factors as the increasing costs
of overseas labor, the expense of
relocation, and the shipping expenses
involved have caused some manufactur-
ers 10 recognize that American pris-
ons, with their abundant supply of
Iabor, are an atiractive alternative to
foreign-based production.” (Gordon
‘Hawkins, *‘Prison Labor and Prison
Industries,” Crime.and Justice: An
Annual Review, 1983

Private prison industries are osiensi-
bly nonprofit, but philanthropy is
hardly their motive. Businesses can
receive tax breaks for running prison
industries, which also permit them
10 increase inventories at a low cost.
Rehabilitation through prison labor
i also problematic. Expanded prison
Iabor can decrease private-sector
work release or ex-offender pro-
grams, since companies have more
1 gain from keeping a trained
prisoner in the prison labor force,
‘where he or she has 1o rights.

Private prison industry can actu-
ally contradict the goals of rehabilita-
tion. To make prison work profitable,

20

THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

prison officials are asked to “mini-
‘mize programming interruptions”” by
suspending treatment, educational,

and vocational activities to accom-
modate indusiry's desire for an eight-
‘hour workday.

The Private Prison

I recent years, some corporate
promoters have begun looking
‘beyond the secondary economic bene-
it of the prison industry. They are
now maneuvering to have the system
itself tumed over to the private
sector.
Private industry is being touted as
the solution o the prison problem,
the salvation of a system that is
clearly failing. Tt is time to get
‘govermment out of the prison busi-
ness,"” says Peter Greenwood, direc-
tor of the Criminal Justice Program
for the Rand Corporation, a private
think-tank in California. *“When
you're looking for innovation, you
don’t look to govemment, you look
10 business."

The president of the National
Corrections Corporation of Santa Fe,
New Mexico, makes the case for
private_prisons in his company’s
promotional literature. *‘Let's say it’s

a 150-bed jail. At 100 inmates,
charged at a rate per inmate per day,
you break even. At over 100 beds,
you make a [modest] profit. . . . If
‘you can get up to 95 percent capacity,
itis possible to make a [good] profit,
like a motel, which is usually only
about 68 percent full"”

Tritroduced with great fanfare in
the mid-1980s, the privatization drive
was far less visible by the decade’s
end—in part because of the host of
legal problems posed by the concept.

Alternatives [to prison] will inevi-
tably fail to become true alterna-
tives without explicit policies for
reduction in the use of incarcera-
tion, becoming instead merely
supplementary programs to con-
tinue prison and jail expansion.
— William Nagel (former prison warden
and auhor of The New Red Barn)

2
THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

‘The National Sheriff’s Association,
the National Coalition for Jail Re-
form, the American Bar Association,
and various state legislatures have all
gone on record either opposing the
idea or maising serious questions
about ts propriety.

Nonetheless, a scattering of local
jail in Florida, Maine, and Pennsylva-
nia are now privately run. The
Immigration and Naturalization Serv-
ice (INS) has also quietly contracted
with private firms o run at least five:
detention centers for undocumented
immigrants. '

A leading advocate of private
prisons is Jack Massey, founder of
the Corrections Corporation of Amer-
ica (CCA). Massey was previously a
founder of the Hospital Corporation
of America, a for-profit_hospital
chain. His CCA, based in Nashville,
Tennessee, is the nation’s largest
private prison firm.

In 1986, ihe Prison Officers Associa-
tion (POA), a professional guards
‘union from Britain, toured the CCA’s
showcase facility, a 360-bed state
prison in Chauanooga, Tennessee.

The POA was appalled to find that *

inmates were *‘cruelly treated”” and
disruptive prisoners *‘gagged with
sticky tape.”” In the female unit, the
visitors said they were *'not amused
or impressed"” by the warden’s “li-

centious remarks o by his descrip-
tions of stripshows performed by
female inmates for male guards.
Ultimately, CCA’s atiempts (o take
over the Tennessee state prison sys-
tem were ruled unconstitutional in
federal court. (Russ Immarigeon,
**Prison Bailout,” Dollars and Sense,
July/August 1987.)

A widely publicized 1984 case
illustrates some of the problems
posed by private prisons. In this case,
sixteen inmates of a privately run
INS detention camp sued both the
INS and the private operator. The
sixteen, Colombians who had sought
10 enter the counury as stowaways,
had been confined in a windowless
twelve- by twenty-foot cell designed
10 hold six people. A private security
guard, who had no training in the use:
of firearms, killed one of the Colom-
bians and seriously injured another
‘because his shotgun went off acci-
dentally while he was using it as a
cattle prod.

The INS sought 1o evade the suit
by arguing that the abuses in question
were the sole responsibility of the
private firm operating the camp, This
argument was rejected, however, by
a federal district court, which af-
firmed that government bodies can-
ot contract out their legal account-
ability for what happens to people

2

THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

they imprison. (589 F. Supp. 1028
[SD. Tex. 1984], cited in Ira Rob-
bins, *Privatization of Corrections:
Defining the Issues,” Federal Proba-
tion, 1986.)

In addition to these human rights
issues, critics have pointed out a host
of economic pitfalls associated with
private prisons. For example, when
prisons are public property, taxpay-
ers must approve the issuance of
bonds 10 finance their construction.
Private financing, however, requires
1o public approval—even though the
public will ultimately pay, nonethe-
less. In Jefferson County, Colorado,
oters twice refected a bond issue for
a county jail. Construction of the
facility was then tumed over to
private interests and the $30 million
construction bond was underwritten
by E. F. Hution.

Privatization not only sidesteps
government fiscal accountability, it
actually raises costs in at least three
distinct ways. First, borrowing money
is more expensive for private con-
cems than for government bodies,
because the govemment presumably
cannot go bankrupt. Thus privatiza-
tion means prison fees will reflect
higher interest rates on construction
‘bonds. Second, building prisons would
qualify private firms for a variety of

tax breaks, thus adding the hidden
‘cost of depleted state revenues. Third,
critics wam, if the privatization idea
ever caught on, there would be litle
1o prevent private corporations from
gaining 2 monopoly over a state’s
prison facilities and then substan-
tially raising its rates.

In 1985, a private firm sought to
build a 750-bed prison on a toxic
waste dump in Pennsylvania—land
it had purchased for $1. According
10 a spokesperson for the state
Department of Corrections, “If it
were a state facility, we would
certainly be concemed about the
grounds where the facility is located.
[As for a private prison, there] is

The real roots of crime are
associated with a constellation
of suffering so hideous that, as
asociety, we cannot bear to look
it in the face. So we hand our
casualties over to a system that
will keep them from our sight.

— David Bazelon (U federal judge)

nothing in our legislation which
gives anyone authority on what to
do.” The plan was abandoned when
it prompted the Pennsylvania legisla-
ture to call for a moratorium on
construction of private prisons.

5
THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

Privatization poses the threat of
profound conflicts of interest, be-
cause private prison operators would
profit from keeping people in prison,
not from finding ways o return them
0 their communities. Overcrowding
and reduced services would spell
higher profits. And private employ-

Crime, in most instances, is the

product of desperation—despair
born of poverty, community de-

cay, and the sense that the future

is merely a continuation of the

past, and certainly no ground for

hope.

—US. Rep. John Conyers

ees would inevitably be influenced
in the information they provided to
‘parole and disciplinary authorities—
assuming these functions were left
in the hands of the state.

Labor rights are another area of
concern. Public_employee unions
have opposed privatization because
they see it as a move to undercut or

even eliminate union representation
for prison employees. Again, with
privatization the economic incentives
‘would all work t0 reduce training and
‘pay levels for prison guards and other
staff, with the potential to seriously
‘worsen abuses of every description.

‘The most chilling possibility would
be a combination of privately oper-
ated prisons with private prison
industries. With reduced public ac-
countability and state oversight, the
‘potential for abuses of an imprisoned
labor force is almost beyond imagi-
nation.

For the present, the move to turn
the prison system over fo private
hands appears 1o be stalled, although
not entirely stopped. Yet in the
current atmosphere of cost-cutling,
deficits, and government fiscal crisis,
such proposals seem likely 10 re-
emerge with renewed vigor. Private
prisons may very well become the
‘most serious threat to human rights,
public accountability, and responsi-
ble economic policies in the entire
history of the U.S. prison system.

THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

Alternatives to Expansion of the

Prison System

here is o denying that the U.S.

prison system is in crisis. The
debate is rather about the proper
direction for a solution: expanding
the falled system or moving in
another direction entirely. As the
final section of this pamphlet argues,
the fundamental answers Lo the prob-
lems of crime lie entirely outside the
criminal justice system, in an end to
social and economic inequality. Tn
the short run, however, far greater
reliance should be placed on alterna-
tives (0 incarceration.

Some longstanding - alternatives
have problems of their own, yet are
still far cheaper and at least as
effective as_imprisonment. While
imprisonment costs the public more:
than $40 per day per prisoner, the
average cost of probation in 1986
‘was only $1.76 a day per probationer,
with an 84 percent success rate.
Pacole cost only $2.10 a day per
parolee, with a 62 percent success
rate. (Corrections Yearbook.)

Ottir forms of custody that do not
involve imprisonment are halfway
houses, third-party custody, and house

armest. According 10 the Congres-
sional Budget Office, it costs less
than half as much to confine a person
in a halfway house as in a prison.
Yet, when the Federal Bureau of
Prisons had to cut its budget during
the early 19805 (a budget that has
since begun to soar once again), it
responded by closing the halfway
houses—and asking for more pris-
ons.

Monetary fines can be effective
‘where amounts are based both on the
seriousness of the crime and on
ability (0 pay. These proportional
fines, or day-fines as they are called
in the countries that rely on them
(mainly in Scandinavia and West
Germany), entail no expense to the
public, 1o burden on the prison
system, and no social dislocation.
They have proven successful for a
wide range of offenses, including
some violent crimes. The sliding
scale ensures that the impact of the
fine will be felt equally by rich,
‘middle class, and poor.

In a growing number of states and
localities, restitution and community

THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

service are becoming more routine.
Restitution works best when the
offender has the financial resources
10 pay for it, but it can also be part
of a community service sentence. In
such arrangements the offender may
wotk directly for the victim or for a
community agency that deducts resti-
tution payments from the offender’s
wages.

Every proposed altemative 10 incar-
ceration, of course, should be exam-
ined on its own merits. Some so-
called alternatives merely have the
effect of widening the et of the
criminal justice system, bringing
people under correctionl control
who formerly would have been left
alone. Tn other- cases, community-
based alternatives have mainly bene-
fited white, middie-class offenders,
leaving prisons 1o be filled by an
ever-increasing percentage of poor
people and people of color.

Human rights activists and civil
libertarians are particularly concerned
with the growing popularity among
correctionsprofessionals of elec-
tronic monitoring *“bracelets” and
*“boot camps,” also known.as “shock
incarceration."" Electronic bracelels,
which contain small transmiters,
allow an offender to remain at home
or at work while his or her move-
ments are tracked electronically by

local authorities. Critics have noted
that this technology has the potential
for extension beyond its current uses
into government surveillance of po-
litical activists and others.

‘Shock incarceration programs oper-
ate on the assumption that offenders
need training in discipline in order
10 lead lawful lives. These programs
rely on harsh physical conditions,
severe treatment, public humiliation,
and_ militaistic group organization
10 coerce participants 1o change their
behavior. Both the “‘boot camps™®
and electronic monitoring programs
virwally ignore the needs of most
offenders for literacy training, sub-
stance abuse treatment, job skills
development, housing, and job place-
ment. Both are coercive, offering
offenders a shorter sentence in ex-
change for partcipation.

A thorough examination of all of
these possibilities is beyond the
scope of this pamphlet. The main
point here is that in order for
alternatives 10 work, prison expan-
sion must cease. History has shown
us repeatedly that as long as prisons
are built, they will be filled. Sanc-
tions for criminal behavior that do
not depend on warehousing hundreds
of thousands of people will prevail
only when warehousing is o longer
available a5 an option.

THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System.

Turning from Justice

tis a bitter irony that the high cost

of prisons cuts into the health,
education, and welfare services needed
by the very people who, lacking such
supports, often end up in prison. The
ultimate victims of these punitive
policies are the same poor communi-
ties that have the most 10 fear from

crime.

Ciics of the prison system argue
that prisons breed more violence, not
less, when prisoners are returned to
the outside world. Dr. Terry Kupers,
a psychiatrist who has studied the
effects of confinement, testified on
this theme at a recent hearing chal-
lenging conditions at San Quentin.
People who are “‘denied human
needs,” he said, “such as adequatc
contact with loved ones, a decent
private space (0 live in, some control
over their own environment, some
productive outlet, and a chance to
Tearn and grow become increasingly
resentful. Fear, hostility, and confu-
sion well up inside them.”

Kupers's views are echoed in the
words of Lamy Smith, a longtime
prisoner in California, who has said,
““Prison. teaches you that violence
not only works, but works quickly.

People are manufactured into explo-
sive machines and released without
decompression. The explosion. will
come, but not necessarily here. [Pris-
oners] will explode—but individu-
ally, when they're out in the commu-
nity.”” (“Inside America’s Prisons,”
Pacific News Service, March 1984.)

I one views the US. prison
system as a reasonable response to
lawbreaking, then crime, violence,
and drugs seem like problems that
‘can never be solved. To gain a deeper
understanding of the purpose of
prisons, it is far more helpful to
analyze them as a response to major
recent transformations of the U.S.
economy: capital flight, the shift to
a service sector economy, the de-
population of the inner cities, an
increasingly segmented labor force,
the economic marginalization of
communities of color, the rise in
youth unemployment, and the de-
funding of social services of every
description.

Crime could be fought by increas-
ing the participation of poor commu-
nities in education, social, and eco-
nomic institutions. The money poured
into. maintaining the prison system

7
THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

could be used to create jobs, improve
education and training, and stimulate
economic opportunities. This was the
conclusion of the National Urban
League in its 1978 study, “Strategies
for Controlling Crime,”” which stated
that *“the top priority of the federal
‘government’s agenda to deal with the
crime problem should be a national
policy of full employment.
Instead, the social policies of the
past decade have reflected a consis-
tent choice 1o abandon poor commu-
nities, especially communities of
color, 10 increasing economic dislo-
cation and the inevitable growth of
criminal activity. As a result, our
society is polarized furiher and fur-
ther—not only into the haves and the
have-nots, but also into the incar-
cerators and the incarcerated.
Meanwhile, African-Americans and
other people of color are stigmatized

as criminals and drug addicts, through
‘media images that subtly (and not-so-
subly) mask the equal participation
of whites in the culture of addiction,
crime, and violence. The decpening
polarization of society thus becomes
a self-perpetuating cycle—in which
the image of the criminal *“‘under-
class"” is used 1o garner support for
the very policies that contribute to
the destruction of poor urban com-
‘munities.

Prisons do not protect society from
crime. Instead, they avoid the far
morechallenging solution of eco-
nomic justice by reinforcing patterns
of economic and social inequality. It
is only by discouraging reliance on
incarceration that we can seek hu-
‘mane and democratic ways 10 make
‘our communities healthy, productive,
and, most of all, safe places to live.

E]
THE FORTRESS ECONOMY: The Economic Role of the U.S. Prison System

Resources

Adjoa Aiyetoro, et. al. The People's
‘Anti-Drug Strategy. National Confer-
ence of Black Lawyers, 1990.

American Friends Service Committee.
Struggle for Justice. Hill & Wang,
1971,

American Friends Service Comitice.
““Places Like This: Women in Prison."”
(audio documentary). 1988.

Currie, Elliott. Confronting Crime: An

American_ Challenge. ~ Pantheon/
Random House, 1985.

Curri, Elliot. “What Kind of Future?
Violence and Public Safety in the Year
2000,” National Council on Crime and
Delinguency, 1987.

Journal of the National Prison Project,
quarterly, American Civil Liberties
Union.

Rafter, Nicole Hahn. Partial Justice:
Women in State Prisons, 1800-1935.
Northeastern University Press. 1985.

Reiman, Jefirey H. The Rich Get
Richer ‘and the Poor Get Prison:
Ideology, Class, and Criminal Justice.
‘Macmillan Books. 3d ed. 1990.

What is the American Friends
Service Committee?

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), founded
in 1917, is a Quaker organization devoted 10 building a just
and peaceful world. The AFSC's work reflects the beliefs
of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Women and
‘men Of many races, nationalities, and religious backgrounds
pariicipate in AFSC as saff and committee members, All
are united in their belief in the infinite worth and equality
of cach human being. This belief leads the AFSC to search
for creative ways to challenge injustice and war. In
communities throughout the country, AFSC works with
people (o bring about an end to poverty, exclusion, and
denial of recognition and rights. -

The AFSC, with more than forty years of experience i the
area of criminal justice reform, has initiated a special project
in the 200th year of the penitentiary system in the United
Statess to serve as a catalyst for reassessment and change of
criminal justice policy. The Fortress Economy is a
contribution of the 200 Years of the Pentitentiary Project
to this debate.