The Expansion of the American Prison Sell

The US prison system is expanding rapidly, and more and more sectors of our society are gearing themselves towards promoting the proliferation of prisons–and profiting off it. With the highest rate of incarceration in the world, we have been sold the idea that police and prisons are the solution to crime. But an investigation of the prison system does not bear this belief up. Instead what we find is a criminal justice system that targets poor people, people of color, and the mentally ill; an invisible archipelago of prisons and jails that are systematically abusive and degrading; police forces that brutalize oppressed communities and perpetuate crime; mass media that glorify law enforcement, dehumanize people branded as criminals, and fan our paranoia of crime even as crime is decreasing; and a network of corporations that are profiting off the whole system and doing their best to make sure the prison sell keeps on selling.