Throwing Away the Key
US Prisons as Strategic Hamlets

As we settle into the twenty-first century, the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Although the fear of "terrorism" has significantly weighted US laws in the police's favor, the primary reasons for the high incarceration rate remain the war on drug users and a change in penological philosophy from one of rehabilitation (or even punishment) to one of banishment. It is this philosophy that lies behind the so-called "three-strikes and you're out" laws and initiatives like Oregon's Measure 11 that established mandatory minimums for certain crimes. There is no attempt involved in these endeavors to seek justice, only a desire for revenge and a pretense that these prisoners are less than human and therefore deserve only a life behind bars or, in some cases, death by the state.
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Part of the reason for the upsurge in prison populations is simple: somebody is making money from incarceration. In addition to the drug war dynamic, which perpetuates not only the need for a higher number of drug arrests but also the need for the continued violation of the drug laws in order to justify its existence, prisons themselves are a growing business. Whether it is a company that manufactures or provides equipment used in corrections, a company whose business is building prisons, or the growing industry of staffing privatized prisons, there is money to be made. In addition, the growing contracting of inmates in manufacturing and services by outside industry has created a need for this new element of the labor force. Like death row prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal wrote in one of his many commentaries, "Under a regime where more bodies equal more profits, prisons take one big step closer to their historical ancestor, the slave pen." Another aspect to the privatization of prisons (and the use of prisoners as labor) is the question of whether the role of these institutions is rehabilitation, punishment or merely the assurance that taxpayer subsidized labor will continue to be provided. Corporations who do contract prison labor range from Starbucks Coffee to the Boeing Corporation. The work is presented to prisoners, legislators and the public as work experience and job opportunities for the inmates when in reality they are nothing but cheap labor opportunities for the participating corporations. With the government assuming costs for all living expenses and a workforce unwilling to challenge labor abuse and other questionable practices for fear of retaliation by prison officials, it is a near perfect environment for the corporation.
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