What is the Prison Industrial Complex?
The Prison Industrial Complex (P.I.C) is a term used to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems.
The Prison Industrial Complex is not just prisons themselves. It is a mutually reinforcing web of relationships between prisons, the probation service, the police, the courts, and all the companies that profit from transporting, feeding and exploiting prisoners.
The UK currently has the most privatised prison system in Europe. Its cultural embrace of surveillance, policing and repressive policies are making it open ground for companies seeking to exploit the custodial markets in the UK.
Thousands are criminalised, imprisoned and controlled, individuals and families are harmed and traumatised, and poverty is perpetuated to allow a small minority of people to profit.
Read more about the P.I.C in the UK:
- Who is harmed and how? What is wrong with prisons?
- How do companies profit?
- What is privatisation and why does it matter?
- Who is making money from the prison industrial complex?
- Where are we headed if the P.I.C isn’t stopped?
- What are the alternatives?
The P.I.C in pictures
A video zine has been produced by organisers in North America that highlights the impacts of the prison industrial complex in the United States.