If We Build It They Will Come: Human Rights Violations and the Prison Industrial Complex Si on le construit, ils viendront: violations des droits de l'homme dans la création d'un complexe d'incarcération à usage industriel. Si la edificamos ocurrirán: las violaciones de derechos humanos y el nego... (original) (raw)

2007, Societies Without Borders

Th is paper utilizes the concept of the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) in order to examine the complex confi guration comprised of the US prison system, multinational corporations, small private businesses and the inmate population in the social and political economy of the 21st century US. Utilizing data on the PIC we pose the question: What is the purpose of prison, the rehabilitation of the inmates or the exploitation of prison labor? Specifi cally we argue, using Wright's neo-Marxist theory, that the current system of incarceration in the US mimics the exploitation characteristic of the slave plantation economy of the southern US, ripe with human rights violations, the products and profi ts of which are exported daily through the expansion of global markets. Si la edifi camos ocurrirán: las violaciones de derechos humanos y el negocio de las prisiones Esta ponencia usa el concepto de Complejo Penal Industrial (PIC) para examinar la compleja confi guración del sistema penal americano de hoy, compuesto por empresas multinacionales, empresas pequeñas y la población encarcelada. Utilizando datos sobre el PIC, planteamos la cuestión: ¿Cual es el propósito de las prisiones, la rehabilitación de los presos o su explotación laboral? Sostenemos, usando la teoría neo-marxista de Wright, que el actual sistema de encarcelamiento en los Estados Unidos reproduce la economía de la 1) Th e fi rst part of our title is actually a paraphrase from the popular fi lm Field of Dreams (1989), about a farmer who becomes convinced by a mysterious voice that he is supposed to construct a baseball diamond in his corn fi eld. Th e fi lm stars Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones. We are grateful to Judith Blau, Alberto Moncada, Bonnie Berry, and Tim McGettigan for their insightful and thorough reviews of our paper. We dedicate this paper to the late Senator Paul Wellstone (1944-2002) who dedicated his life to the fi ght for human rights.