The Perpetual Prisoner Machine Chapter Summary

The purpose of this essay is to share my critical analysis of a chapter from the book “The Shame of the Governance” by Robert Grantham and Levon Chorbajian. In particular, I will focus on Chapter 5, “Profiting from Prisons” written by Joel Dyer. This article is taken from the author’s book “The Perpetual Prisoner Machine: How America Profits from Crime.” Dyer is a non-fiction writer, editor, publisher and newspaper owner. His passion to uncover the profit driven media, political exploitation and corporate investors who have driven the U.S. to the brink of criminal enterprise is a compelling argument for a revamping of the American Justice System and the American Court System. Dyer believes violence sells and because the media is

a “for profit” enterprise, viewers are fed a line-up of shows which include violent crimes and tortured victims promoting the perpetual fear of violent offenders behind every door. In his article Dyer challenges our perception of the utility of imprisonment as a form of punishment. Instead, he shows a growing rational for the “business or incarceration.” This essay will provide a look at Dyer’s inspection of the system and an analysis of his research and observations.
An Analytical look at “The Shame of the Governance”
In Dyer’s article he claims it has been a couple of decades since the U.S. penal system has been transforming the incarceration of inmates into a very lucrative business when prison expansion should have been reaching its economic limitations. This explosive rejuvenation of prison expansion was not a result of voter confirmation, but instead, decisions made from within the penal system institution at the expense of those who are “paying the bill.” This new era of privately run penitentiaries came at a time when many states were under a court order to reduce overcrowding and to reduce costs. As in many “red tape” road blocks, there is typically a detour route to get to the same objective. Hence, politicians and aspiring private corporations found that detour in alternative financing methods which did not require voter approval. In 2013, the Washington Post found the two largest for profit prison companies to be GEO and Corrections Corporation of America. These organizations alone were said to have funneled millions of dollars to supportive candidates ensuring their continued contracting support for this billion dollar profit making enterprise.
The State penal system has its share of private prisons as well. In 2015, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that the for-profit companies housed approximately 7 % of state prisoners as well as 18 % of federal prisoners. In 2016, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency reported U.S. enterprise run prisons housed three quarters of federal immigration detainees. Even some local jail systems have turned to privately managed and owned confinement centers to house their incarcerated population.
Another important point Dyer discusses in his article is the fact that overcrowding of prisons centers around a penal system which puts non-violent, “blue collar” criminals behind bars at the cost of the tax payer when a more effective means of justice could be served outside prison walls. These “private” institutions failed to alleviate the overcrowding primarily for this reason. Dyer notes the expenses in housing inmates has increased in costs several times over in some states. The “perpetual” feeding of the “prison machine” only continues to grow at the expense of funds being diverted from more needed social programs focused on keeping people out of prison in the first place. Dyer concludes the “machine” will continue to run until the mechanism which feeds it, i.e. the politicians, the media and the corporate engines funding these prison walls, choose to disable these facilities completely.
Dyer’s analysis of this “perpetual machine” is not based upon any one cog in the wheel. Instead it is based upon many cogs each helping the machine stay in motion, stronger and longer. He cites the greed of corporate enterprises profiting from lobbying influential political leaders seeking government dollars to feed “the machine.” He highlights the media coverage of crime and its ability to grow fear and panic among the public who begin to think they could be a victim so more laws are needed to protect them. Each of the cogs in this machine fuel the next. Dyer’s assertions would lead one to the idea that entertainment has a significant influence on portraying our society as a violent, socio-pathic ridden world with danger around every corner and even in our homes. Perhaps he is right. I recently looked at the top Oscar winning movies of the past ten years and all but two were based upon violence, greed, drugs and other seedy acts. Violence sells and the media is a for profit machine with little conscious or sense of moral responsibility, fueling the fear, which moves voters to demand more laws, which puts criminals of all types behind bars, creating a need for more prisons that the federal, state and local jails simply can’t handle. No fear, here comes the for-profit corporations which can solve all your incarceration problems, for a price.
As Dyer suggests, crime is real no doubt but often times crime is “perceived” as real through the eyes of movies, television shops, music and other media.

While the media, politicians and the big business enterprises fuel the need to “jail them all,” Palen offers a bit of a different reasoning for today’s prison problems. According to Palen, there were steady decreases in urban crime in the years 1993 through 2010. Then beginning in the mid 2000’s, murder and robberies increased at alarming rates, particularly within city limits. While Dyer focuses on these for profit corporations as proponents of increased prison populations, another perspective is that people became complacent in fighting crime because the numbers of crimes were going down and a decrease in federal funding resulted in less law enforcement on the streets reacting to criminals. Once society realized complacency and inadequate funding would not address the “safety of the streets,” more laws were put in place and more funding was pumped into the prison and jail system.

Dyer also asserts his belief that the prison expansion would not continue for an additional 20 years. He was correct. His article was written in 2000. The life of the federal level privately run prison’s would find itself being phased out by 2016 as these facilities were being unearthed as being less safe and less effective with no real cost savings for the tax payer. It seemed the only ones benefiting from these arrangements

were the corporations running these less than adequate establishments and supportive politicians.
From my many research on for-profit prisons it is easy to conclude the U.S. has more people in prisons and jails than any other society in the world. Why is that and how did the U.S. come to have so many people needing to be locked up behind bars, deprived of main stream America? I believe Dyer is correct in that these for-profit prisons created a perpetual machine which interferes with a manageable penal system. The assertion that these organizations strive to increase the prison populations instead of decreasing them through better social programs and other crime deterrent programs is right on target. These corporations certainly do not support the “Broken Window Theory” which suggests crime prevention is the best way to control crime and keep people out of jail. Locking up people for the sake of profit is simply wrong. Having a just and crime appropriate justice system where those who need to be locked up are and those who are easily rehabilitated are penalized outside prison walls is what the system was meant to be.
A concern of mine is the more recent crackdown on illegal immigrants.

While I support a just sentence for criminals illegal or legal, I can definitely see the prison population increasing even more as the country addresses the need to take action against those who break the laws of immigration and even worse, commit crimes against others. It would seem to me Dyer could not have predicted at the time of his article that the tides would change in the U.S., a border wall would begin to be built and foreign travelers would find themselves stranded at airports in an attempt to regain control of our American immigration system. I can certainly see these large prison corporations support such a crackdown and lobbying politicians to support stronger immigration laws. Why, not because it’s the right thing to do. Instead because it will put even more people behind bars increasing their profit while diverting government money for more social programs needed to assist those who seek legitimate change in their lives by immigrating to

America.
Dyer certainly has addressed a shocking and concerning trend in our countries justice policies and laws. He has identified some of the major contributors to the private prison frenzy and exposed the corruption and self-centered corporations who are profiting by the billions on the enterprise of crime. These “perpetual machines” have completely different interests than those of taxpayers. These machines are a business and as with most businesses, they are in it with the intent to make money. These machines lobby for more laws, which put more people behind bars. Less laws means fewer law breaking people and less law breaking people means fewer inmates and fewer inmates is not good business.