The Roots of the PIC in American History<\/p>\r\n
by Daniel Horowitz de Garcia, Walda Katz-Fishman, Clark \r\nMcKnight<\/p>\r\n
All periods in history have social control methods appropriate for the \r\nmoment. The Prison-Industrial Complex (PIC) is one of the key control methods \r\nfor our time. With this in mind, the popular education materials within this \r\ntoolkit critically examine the Prison-Industrial Complex and why the ruling \r\ninterests (e.g. politicians, corporate executives, the wealthy, etc.) consider \r\nit appropriate for today.<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
Slavery: 1600-1800s<\/p>\r\n
The PIC as we know it today - with a militarized police force and prisons as \r\nthe only answer to current social problems - dates to the late 1960s and early \r\n1970s. However, the roots of this system date to a key founding institution of \r\nthe US: slavery. Slavery, as an institution, codified brutality as a means of \r\ncontrol for those deemed social undesirables. Of course popular movements \r\nattacked the morality of slavery from its inception, but it wasn’t until the \r\nmid-19th century that the economy itself began an assault on this \r\ninstitution.<\/p>\r\n
The Civil War was a conflict between two competing sections of capital: \r\nNorthern industrial capital and Southern plantation capital. When the free labor \r\nof enslaved Africans was seen as a threat to northern industrialism, the issue \r\nsplit the state and both sides used whatever force necessary to protect their \r\ninterests. By prohibiting Southern plantations from profiting off slavery, \r\nNorthern industrialists ensured their financial success. The war was fought not \r\nto insure freedom for all, but greater profit for some. With the 1877 \r\nHayes-Tilden Compromise setting the stage for the dismantling of Reconstruction, \r\na new institution of brutality, cheap labor & social control rose from the \r\nashes of slavery: the convict lease system.<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
Convict Lease System: 1870s to 1930s<\/p>\r\n
If slavery is the grandparent of today’s PIC, then the convict lease system \r\nis its parent. Although defeated in the war, Southern plantation owners still \r\nneeded cheap labor and a way to divide the growing alliances between poor people \r\nof color and whites. Their answer was the Black Codes, a set of laws which \r\ncriminalized African-American existence. Everyday activities of Blacks - like \r\nstanding on a street corner - were deemed criminal. Additionally, sentences for \r\nother \"crimes\" were extended for African-Americans. Finally, those convicted \r\nserved their sentences doing manual labor for counties, the state or private \r\ncompanies. <\/p>\r\n
The system actually proved to be more cost-effective for owners than slavery. \r\nSince companies paid for a mass of convict workers, rather than individual \r\nslaves, the death of one of the prisoners did not affect profits. A new convict \r\nwould replace a dead worker without economic impact on the company. This system \r\nalso created a population that could be used to beat down worker resistance. As \r\nthe Tennessee miners’ strike of 1891 showed, employers would not hesitate to use \r\nconvict labor to break strikes. <\/p>\r\n<\/b>
Learning Lessons from History: 1960’s to Present<\/p>\r\n
The state (e.g. police, military and the criminal injustice system) and its \r\nlaws serve those who own society’s wealth and run the society. But it is the \r\nrace, class and gender interests of the time that determine what form the \r\ncontrol will take. For example, at a time when people of color were defined by \r\nlaw as being less than human, slavery was considered appropriate. The form of \r\nsocial control changes over time, but its essential nature remains the same. \r\nAlthough it has been about 70 years since the convict leasing system was \r\nabolished, we still live with its legacy. Its essential qualities - \r\ncriminalizing a targeted population, undermining worker strength and subsidizing \r\ncheap labor for private corporations - exist today in the prison-industrial \r\ncomplex.<\/p>\r\n
Reforms that do not address the social control aspect of the PIC cannot end \r\nthe brutality it causes. These reforms will only succeed in changing the form of \r\nthe brutality. Prison labor, the electric chair, and even the concept of prison \r\nitself were all introduced as reforms designed to end extremes of institutional \r\nviolence. These reform efforts of the past did address fundamental issues of \r\nsocial control and, not incidentally, have become the subject of reform efforts \r\ntoday. <\/p>\r\n
To end this brutal and unjust system and make true, lasting change, we must \r\nwork beyond just reform of the PIC and think broadly about its impact. In short, \r\nwe have to have a wide definition of the problem and recognize that reforms \r\nalone won’t solve it.<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
PIC in the Age of Globalization<\/p>\r\n
History only helps us if we bring lessons from the past into the present day. \r\nAnd today the force driving most, if not all, aspects of our society is \r\ncorporate globalization. Globalization - i.e., capitalism in the electronic age \r\ndriving expansion of the economic market system across the globe in search of \r\nmaximum profits - is directly linked to the PIC. As the gains of past movements \r\nare stripped away and we are forced to work longer hours with less security and \r\nno benefits, social control becomes a greater concern for the ruling elite.<\/p>\r\n
Globalization forces societies to accept the notion that an individual is \r\nonly entitled to what they can earn. Education is restricted to only those \r\ndeemed worthy. Technological advances in production, which make corporate \r\nglobalization possible, mean there will simply not be enough jobs for everyone. \r\nHealth care and other vital services are only available to those who can afford \r\nthem. The social contract between the government and the people is broken and \r\npublic services become privatized. In this society, social control of the \r\n\"undesirables,\" meaning anyone who cannot consume in the global economy, is not \r\nonly desired, it is required. While slavery was social control based on race, \r\nglobalization has made the PIC social control based on class, race and \r\ngender.<\/p>\r\n
Looking at the PIC historically and in the context of globalization, one has \r\nto define it broadly. We define the prison-industrial complex as:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n
Neoliberal policies, practices and institutions of all levels of government \r\ndesigned to remove the discarded (those who are unemployable, poor, uneducated, \r\netc.) from society to further the social control of those negatively impacted by \r\nglobalization.<\/p>\r\n
Many issues fit within this definition. A short list includes: discriminatory \r\narrest and sentencing, police brutality, prisons, zero tolerance, racial \r\nprofiling, the death penalty, voter disenfranchisement, youth criminalization, \r\nmilitarized border, political prisoners\/prisoners of war, immigration \"reform,\" \r\nsupermax prisons, prison labor and private prisons. <\/p>\r\n<\/b>
Strategy & Vision to End the PIC<\/p>\r\n
Such a wide definition has a significant impact on our organizing. It means \r\nsingle-issue organizing will not win. We can’t stop a prison from being built \r\nwithout understanding the need for rural economic development. And we will leave \r\nourselves vulnerable to splintering and wedge issues (between whites and people \r\nof color, LGBT and straight, Latino\/a and African-American, etc.) if we do not \r\nbuild strategic alliances. Although reforms are necessary to end immediate \r\nbrutality, we cannot win if we only fight for reform. We must struggle in a \r\nbroader context and link the organizing against the PIC to the fight against \r\ncorporate globalization. We hope this toolkit will help you ask the questions \r\nthat must be asked to make this link. Questions like:<\/p>\r\n
lWhy should the brute force \r\nof social control be tolerated?<\/p>\r\n
l Why are we expendable? \r\nDon't we all deserve an education? A living wage job?<\/p>\r\n
l Who is served by wedge \r\nissues ?<\/p>\r\n
And, of course, the most important questions: What would a society without \r\nprisons look like? How do we get there?<\/p>\r\n<\/u>
Sources<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Castells, Manuel. 2000. End of Millennium 2nd Edition<\/u>. Blackwell \r\nPublishers, Inc.<\/p>\r\n
Brecher, Jeremy. 1997. Strike!<\/u> South End Press.<\/p>\r\n
Mancini, Matthew J. 1996. One Dies, Get Another: Convict Leasing in the \r\nAmerican South, 1866-1928<\/u>. University of South Carolina Press.<\/p>\r\n
Rosenblatt, Elihu (ed.). 1996. Criminal Injustice: Confronting the Prison \r\nCrisis<\/u>. South End Press.<\/p>\r\n
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