Race Class Vs Incarceration In Prison Essay

In American society, race, class, and incarceration play a huge role in privatized corporations and in the lives of Americans. Our country has a tendency of using a person’s appearance and class to its own advantage. The U.S claims to incarcerate the vast amounts of inmates it does in order to protect its citizens but there is more that happens inside the doors of prisons. In this essay, I will argue that the United States profiteers within the prisons, selfishly uses the prison industrial complex to their advantage, and lastly, how race and class effect prisons.
The prison industrial complex consists of huge corporations making money off of prison inmates. Private corporations use prisons as an alternative way to have their products manufactured, for much cheaper and without having to worry about extra expenses. “Companies don’t have to worry about unionized workers, health care, or wages, due to inmates doing their tasks for only a fraction of the wage, according to Angela Davis in “ Masked Racism” as stated by Eve Goldberg and Linda Evans”(1998). In other words the wealthy make their money by exploiting the minorities. The U.S law enforcement tends to mainly target the minority

like the homeless, blacks, and Latinos. These few may be a minority in the real world but makeup the majority in the prisons.
According to The Sentencing Project (2012), the United Sates houses about 1,600,00 inmates since 2010 (1). Classism and racism is said to be a thing of the past but that is just a way for the government to distract people from the fact that where you come from does matter. The American justice system seems to mainly focus on our country’s minorities. The way that law enforcement makes their arrests is greatly influenced by the accuser’s background. Today, it is extremely common to see a police officer roaming around a lower income community questioning and arresting both men and women that appear suspicious. This is a part of their day-plan to meet their quota, and to make it look like they did their job. When in all honesty, they made the assumption that blacks and browns are criminals, and targeted them. People of color and of lower income communities make up about 70 percent of our countries jails and prisons (Davis 684). Race and class stereotypes have affected our society by labeling minorities. This is all part of a social control to somehow “disappear human beings” (Davis 683) and make those around us believe that it is acceptable to have so many human beings incarcerated.
It is a real shame that even today, the twenty first century, our justice system still can’t seem to get past racism and classism.

In a Victor Rios interview with Dalton Conley (2010), Rios mentions “young people are marked at a very young age by the system”. The system not only attacks lower income adults, but also unfairly affects the lives of young children. Children see what law enforcement does around their community and they grow up thinking that, that is the norm. Therefore they get sucked into the criminal life. Being in that lifestyle they experience all sorts of hardships, which lead to a life in and out of prison. That is something that the government uses to his or her advantage because it will always have someone to blame for everything that is socially wrong in our

country.
Prisons have become more than just a place where criminals are put away. Over the years prisons have become a place of business for several large corporations. Private companies have been using prisons as a means of profit and as a way to boost the United States economy in a selfish manner. Inmates are being subjected to labor in the prisons for nothing in return but a small wage. Many big companies are resorting to this method of production due to it being less expensive and more convenient. According to Davis the two largest private prisons in the United States are the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and Wackenhut Corrections Corporation (WCC) (685). Both of these corporations are currently making huge profits in the stocks and it’s all thanks to the exploitation of inmates inside the prisons. These inmates work for various companies, anything from electronics, clothing, and cell phone companies. Big name companies like Victoria Secret and Microsoft make huge profit from this kind of “business”. In Dalton Conley’s You May Ask Yourself, he mentions the labeling theory, which discusses the way others view and react to your label (206). So for example, an inmate may have a job and small wage inside the prison but the minute he leaves those doors everything changes. People outside the prison will view an ex inmate as trouble and possibly dangerous. So in a sense what they are doing is labeling he/or she and making them feel ostracized. This feeling of not belonging is what prompts them to repeat the crime and eventually go back to prison. This is what makes private prison profiteering so successful; there will never be a worker shortage due to the same cycle repeating itself.
Informal sanctions are actions that aren’t exactly illegal but are frowned upon by society (Conley 196). Profiteering is one of those subjects. If everyone was told what exactly happens behind the doors of private prisons they wouldn’t consider it morally correct, making it an informal sanction. However, it is not widely known so people choose to ignore the fact that it is actually happening. Because it is not considered a crime, the U.S neglects the idea of doing anything to stop it. It in fact does the opposite, since it helps the economy grow and prosper.
Our country has a tendency of being selfish and extremely money oriented. The prison industrial complex just goes to show how our government and justice system uses the hardships of others too their advantage. They have managed to create large and wealthy corporations where they use inmate labor to make a profit. Their whole business is all thanks to the minorities that they target and incarcerate simply because of their appearance. A person class and race has a huge impact on the way they are seen by other people, especially the white privileged. Minorities are usually looked down on due to the hardships they face in life, and put in prison for even the smallest of actions. If society were more willing to help those who are facing hardships, our word would be so much different. However that isn’t the case and America is just in it for the profit.