Abstract
Much scholarly attention has focused on the negative aspects of mass incarceration and rightly so. However, we know of no one that has paid attention to the role of large-scale organizations (or the millions of people they employ) that profit from or derive their livelihood off of mass incarceration and ancillary industries. We argue that the US system of mass incarceration is foundational to the reconfigured post-industrial economy. Millions of Americans, indeed entire communities, are dependent upon the millions of convicts and ex-convicts for their very sustenance. Every year, universities across the US graduate more than 60,000 students with majors in Homeland Security and Law Enforcement. These “controllogy” disciplines are perfecting the science of keeping people under control. Furthermore, race and racism undergird this system. Residents of highly policed “million dollar block” neighborhoods characterized by failing schools, low rates of home ownership, and limited access to credit, fuel the now multi-generational school-to-prison pipeline. Consequently, society has grown dependent upon black and brown incarcerated bodies to maintain a significant part of the US economy. We conclude the chapter by advancing a counter-system to this system of mass incarceration that allows us to reverse course.
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Notes
- 1.
We only sketch Sjoberg’s elaboration of bureaucratic capitalism. Refer to Abu-Lughod’s Sociology for the Twenty-first Century (1999) for complete details.
- 2.
See Timothy T. Taylor’s “What Financial Risks are Lurking?” for discussions on the risks confronting financial institutions in the online blog, Conversable Economist (December 6, 2017)
- 3.
Ex-prisoners won an enrichment claim against JP MorganChase for excessive fees charged to ex-prisoners associated with JP MorganChase issued debit cards that were distributed upon release (Mount 2016).
- 4.
Data compiled using HISD-identified dropout factory schools and Texas Education Agency 2011–12 Academic Excellence Indicator System Campus Reports. See Appendix.
- 5.
States have employed private corporations (Maximus is one) to identify ways of diverting federal money designated for children with disabilities, nursing home patients and others in need to state budgets instead. For more about these practices see Hatcher’s (2016) The Poverty Industry: The Exploitation of America’s Most Vulnerable Citizens.
- 6.
For a discussion on distinction between a market society and market economy, we recommend Michael Sandels’ What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets (2012).
- 7.
Law enforcement labeled white offenders “troublesome” and sent them to community rehabilitation centers; black and Latino youth were labeled “delinquent” and sent to juvenile detention centers. “The police … criminalized black children … and decriminalized white youth,” asserts Hinton (2016, p. 222).
- 8.
For more about the relationship between corporations and state government, see “State Contracting with Private Corporations is Big Business,” by the Service Employee International Union Local 1000, February 2012.
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Appendix
Appendix
2011–2012 TEA
Column1 | % Hispanic | % African Amer | % White | % Ec disadvan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Austin HS | 94.4 | 4.1 | 1.3 | 83.3 |
Chavez HS | 81.7 | 12.7 | 1.6 | 82.7 |
Davis HS | 88.5 | 10.3 | 1 | 93.4 |
Furr HS | 80.4 | 16.6 | 2.5 | 92.3 |
Jones HS | 27 | 72.3 | 0.2 | 76.4 |
Kashmere HS | 17 | 81.3 | 0.2 | 80.2 |
Law Enfr-Cr Jus HS | 72.2 | 23.4 | 3.1 | 83 |
Lee HS | 74.3 | 13.3 | 4.3 | 78.7 |
Madison HS | 52.9 | 45.1 | 0.6 | 81.2 |
Milby HS | 95.6 | 3.1 | 0.7 | 81.3 |
Reagan HS | 85.2 | 9.8 | 3.9 | 78.9 |
Scarborough HS | 65.9 | 26.6 | 6.3 | 87.2 |
Sharpstown HS | 66 | 29.1 | 2.4 | 94 |
Sterling HS | 25.8 | 71.5 | 1.3 | 79.7 |
Waltrip HS | 73.5 | 13.4 | 11.5 | 75.1 |
Washington BTS HS | 32.1 | 64 | 1.5 | 85.2 |
Westbury HS | 48 | 41.9 | 2.5 | 78.4 |
Worthing HS | 10.5 | 88.4 | 0.8 | 76.7 |
Yates HS | 8.3 | 90.5 | 0.2 | 75.9 |
2.415789474 | 82.29473684 |
Texas Education Agency 2011–2012 Academic Excellence Indicator System Campus Reports available online at: https://rptsvr1.tea.texas.gov/perfreport/aeis/2012/campus.srch.html
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Douglas, K.M., Sjoberg, G., Sáenz, R., Embrick, D.G. (2018). Bureaucratic Capitalism, Mass Incarceration and Race and Ethnicity in America. In: Batur, P., Feagin, J. (eds) Handbook of the Sociology of Racial and Ethnic Relations. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76757-4_20
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