Proceedings of The National Conference
On Undergraduate Research (NCUR) 2012
Weber State University, Ogden, Utah
March 29-31, 2012
From Plantation to Prison: A Look at the Continuous Mental, Social and
Cultural Imprisonment of Criminal Offenders Using the Realist Theory
Kandice Purdy
Department of Political Science
Howard University
Washington, DC 20059
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Abdul Karim Bangura
&
Anonymous NCUR Faculty Referee
Abstract
Slavery and its harsh conditions ended over a century ago. Or, did it? In addition to the psychological effects still in
existence today due to slavery, the institution of slavery also left behind a business blueprint which is currently
being used and mastered by a powerful entity—the American criminal justice system. Today, prisoners are forced to
endure harsh conditions similar to those that existed during slavery, including torture, humiliation, and labor with
little to no pay. The Realist Theory suggests that an individual with power can influence a powerless individual to
behave in a manner or perform acts which the powerless individual would not normally perform. Applying the
Realist Theory, this paper hypothesizes that rather than serving as a form of rehabilitation as intended, the American
prison system functions as a powerful business which exploits prisoners to perform work they would otherwise not
do for very little or no pay in order to gain profit. Since the American prison system generates major profits for
private owners and wealthy individuals who are able to benefit from the labor of prisoners, prisons seem to no
longer have any intention of rehabilitation and seem more interested in having prisoners return. Upon release from
prison, obtaining necessities for survival such as employment and housing is extremely difficult, if not impossible
for offenders. Applying the Marxist Theory, this paper further hypothesizes that the American prison system not
only functions similarly to slavery from a business aspect, it also does so culturally as it seeks to keep offenders at
the bottom of society even after their physical release from incarceration. Qualitative data collected from primary
and secondary sources employing three expert interviews and the document analysis technique were used to test the
hypotheses. The findings delineated from the systematic data analysis support both hypotheses.
Keywords: Slavery, American Criminal Justice System, Prisoners, Realist Theory, Marxist Theory
1. Introduction
Since the beginning of time, laws with consequences or punishments have been developed to assist in the
maintenance of order within the society where they were established. Although in the United States the
responsibility of creating laws is credited to the legislative branch, the entity known as the American prison system
enforces consequences. While the United States prides itself on having the best justice system in the world, it also
has the highest incarceration rate in the world with one in every 100 adults currently imprisoned (Liptak, 2008).
Theoretically, the American prison system originated to maintain order within the nation by taking dangerous, law
breaking individuals out of society and placing them within institutions to rehabilitate them into better, law abiding
citizens. Whether this goal was ever achieved is debatable; however, during the past 40 years, the American prison
system has experienced dramatic changes in a direction contrary to the theoretical reasons for its existence. Since the
Richard Nixon era, the institutions of the American prison system have grown to function more as a business for
profit than as “correctional facilities” (Parenti, 2000).
This essay utilizes the Realist Theory to analyze the manner in which the American prison system has evolved to
function in a way similar to that in which the institution of slavery functioned less than 200 years ago. In doing this,
the power players in the American prison system achieve the goal of keeping ex-offenders at the pits of society by
keeping these individuals mentally, socially and culturally imprisoned. The time frame covered in this essay begins
by examining the structure of the institution of slavery as well as the conditions former slaves were forced to endure
during the aftermath of their emancipation. The essay then focuses on the evolution of the American prison system
into this slavery-like institution from the Richard Nixon era to the present.
The major research questions investigated in this paper are as follows: (a) In what ways do the structure and
culture of the American prison system mimic that of the institution of slavery? (2) Who benefits from the American
prison system as it exists today? Who is placed at a greater disadvantage? (3) How are ex-offenders discriminated
against upon release from prison? What constitutional rights are lost?
The purpose of this paper is neither to proclaim the innocence of any current or ex-offenders, nor is it to excuse
their behavior in committing crimes. The essay’s sole purpose is to essentially serve as a catalyst for future progress
to help insure that individuals have equal opportunity to continue their lives as equal, law abiding citizens once their
individual debts to society have been paid, regardless of their past mistakes.
2. Literature Review
Less than one century ago, African Americans celebrated the ratification of the Civil Rights Amendments which
seemingly entitled them to citizenship and freedom, equal protection and voting rights. In reality, the language of the
13th Amendment states that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the
party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Therefore, individuals are protected from the conditions of slavery without due process. Literally, this means that
once an individual has been convicted of a crime by a judge or jury of his/her peers, the said individual may be
stripped of these rights by the government. As an inmate, one is therefore a ward of the state or nation and is forced
to adhere to a schedule and live within the guidelines provided by the state. Unfortunately, after escaping this legal
involuntary solitude inmates endure while in prison, many convicts return because the structure of society is
designed to disregard former inmates by excluding them from employment, housing and other necessities for
survival in society. The following literature review follows a thematic approach to discuss a sample of scholarly
sources found on this topic. The review first discusses the various philosophical ideas on the connection between the
prison industry, as it exists in present-day society, and the institution of slavery. Next, the review discusses the cycle
of repeat offenders and finally the major beneficiaries of this cycle and the prison industry itself.
In his book, Prison Masculinities (2001), Don Sabo suggests that policies implemented in United States prisons
since the 1990s have influenced the shift of the purpose of prisons from rehabilitation of inmates to punishment of
inmates for profit by the state. Sabo reveals that the federal government has drastically cut back funding for college
programs in prisons as well as federal financial aid for released convicts.
In the book, From the Plantation to the Prison: African-American Confinement Literature (2008), Tara T. Green
addresses the spaces of confinement used throughout history up to the present to disenfranchise African Americans.
Green credits plantations, Jim Crow laws and current laws with being the institutions of confinement used by
individuals in power to oppress African Americans socially, politically, and spiritually. In his book, Are Prisons
Obsolete? (2003), Angela Davis highlights the similarities between present-day prisons and the institution of
slavery, including the dependence of subjects on others for basic necessities such as food and shelter. In addition to
this, Davis also addresses the harsh labor many inmates are forced to endure for extended hours with drastically less
compensation than deserved.
In recent years, as the issue of prison labor has become more mainstream, many supporters have argued in favor of
it, alleging that prison labor functions synonymously with wage labor in any capitalist society. In his book, Prison
Labor in the United States: An Economic Analysis (2008), Asatar Blair disputes these allegations in relating the
functioning of prison labor closer to that of slavery.
In discussing the relationship between the present US prison system and the institution of slavery, Jason Haslam,
in his book, Fitting Sentences: Identity in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Prison Narratives (2004), relates the
two aspects by stating the similarities among their foundations, structures, and daily functions. Haslam concludes
that both institutions function by physically and mentally oppressing the individuals within them to produce servile,
obedient individuals, while simultaneously creating a captive source of labor. Haslam also addresses the argument
that the institutions are necessary as a means of moral education and social harmony by alleging that the setups of
both institutions contradict this argument. By contrast, the author states that often within both institutions possible
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opportunities where criminals/slaves can be reformed or educated are denied.
In the book, Mass Imprisonment: Social Causes and Consequences (2001), David Garland argues that sentencing
alternatives and community corrections such as community service and restitution as sanctions have been successful
over the past 20 years. Garland argues in favor of funding for these programs as well as other programmatic
responses such as daily reporting centers, drug court and graduated sanctions for probation and parole violators.
In Doing Time: An Introduction to the Sociology of Imprisonment (1999), Bell Gale Chevigny discusses the impact
of the private sector on federal and state prisons throughout the nation. Chevigny expresses the view that since 1990,
at least 38 states have legalized the contracting of prison inmates to private companies for free or cheap labor. Milan
Zafirovski in his book, Modern Free Society and Its Nemesis: Democracy, Economy, and Conservatism: Political
and Economic Freedoms and Their Antithesis in the Third Millennium (2008), discusses the beneficiaries of the
prison industry as it exists today. Zafirovski alleges that slave-like prison labor enables private contractors,
conservative states and the federal government of the United States to have economic superiority through the
opportunity to exploit inmates for cheap labor. This fact has influenced the vested interest of these three groups to
continue the cycle of repeated offenders and expand the prison system into a massive entity for their continuous
economic benefits.
Christian Parenti in Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis (1999) addresses the existence of
the Prison Industrial Complex and its effects on society, as well as the daily exploitation of prisoners for profit.
Parenti relates the current setup of the prison to that of the military in the “prison as pentagon” argument, which
alleges that incarceration bolsters capitalism through broad Keynesian stimulus, the privatization of prisons and
prison related services, and the exploitation of prison labor by private firms.
In his article, “The Prison Industrial Complex” (1998), Eric Schlosser addresses the connection between the “War
on Crime” by politicians over the past three decades and the rise in the Prison Industrial Complex. Schlosser argues
that while approximately 35 million dollars is being spent yearly on prisons, inmates are not being rehabilitated at all
but instead are being used and abused for the economic gain of others. The author also notes that as crime rates
nationwide continue to decrease, the number of inmates in state and federal prisons rises annually. Addressing the
same issue in her article, “Drug War Policy and the Prison Industrial Complex” (2000), Lisa M. Hammond
highlights how the policies instituted during the war on drugs have disproportionately affected African American
men and contributed to the growth of the Prison Industrial Complex. Hammond addresses the disparities between
the number of prisons being built by governments and that of public colleges. Hammond’s solution to the main issue
of the Prison Industrial Complex is in reforming laws to equally affect all races and proposing alternative
consequences to crimes to include rehabilitation and correction rather than imprisonment.
Although there have been many extensive and informative studies done on the connection between the institution
of slavery and the Prison Industrial Complex, as well as the lack of rehabilitation for inmates in the prison system as
it exists today, the information lacks diagnosis of why the prison system functions as it does and tangible
propositions on how to transform it in order to fulfill its original purpose of rehabilitation for prisoners. This paper
adds to these works by presenting new findings and credible suggestions to institute rehabilitation methods within
prisons and ultimately replace the Prison Industrial Complex with a more humane and efficient alternative, which
would also end or at least minimize the cycle of repeat offenders
3. Theoretical Framework and Research Methodology
The Realist Theory, which is based on Realpolitik, suggests that there are real forces operating in the world beyond
people’s immediate perceptions of them (Freyberg-Inan, 2004), and the Marxist Theory, which is based on the idea
that the history of any existing society is in the history of class struggles (Marx & Engels, 1998). are the theories
used to guide this paper. In relationship to politics, the Realist Theory asserts that the able political practitioner takes
account of these forces and incorporates them into his political perceptions and acts (Freyberg-Inan, 2004). The
Marxist Theory argues that the proletariat is constantly exploited through constant revolutionizing of production,
uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty, and agitation distinguish the bourgeois
epoch from all earlier ones for the purpose of the accumulation of wealth in private hands, and the formation and
increase of capital to benefit the bourgeoisie (Marx & Engels, 1998).
The Realist Theory is useful because it reveals the opportunity for manipulation presented in power struggles
within human interaction. Individuals and groups engulfed with real or perceived power have the ability to have
great impact on and, therefore, influence the lives of those presumed powerless, often for their benefit (Freyberg-
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Inan, 2004). The Marxist Theory is useful because it explains how these power struggles originate due to the
existence of two classes: the oppressors or the bougeousie and their victims in the proletariat. According to Marx, as
long as this class system exists, power struggles and ultimately manipulation and exploitation of the powerless
individuals of the bourgeoisie will exist (Marx & Engels, 1998).
These acknowledgements are what make Realism and Marxism essential to this study. The paper relies on the idea
that individuals in power in the United States have cleverly developed the prison industry to disenfranchise those
who enter it for their personal benefit. While Realism is used to show the opportunity the creators and controllers of
the Prison Industrial Complex have to manipulate and exploit the prisons, Marxism is used to analyze the historical
basis for the existence of this manipulation and exploitation.
The methodological approach used in this study is qualitative, augmented by an expert interview technique, with a
focus on descriptive and explanatory analyses. The examination of non-numerical research along with primary data
allows an in-depth analysis of the similarities between the institution of slavery and the Prison Industrial Complex.
According to N.C. Nievaaard, the qualitative technique consists of four major steps: (1) literature research, (2)
development of an instrumentarium, (3) exploratory interviewing, and (4) directed interviewing. The expert
interview technique is useful because the interviewee has distinctive knowledge of a situation which is essential for
the research to have guidance (Mann, 1968:107).
Applying the Realist Theory, this paper hypothesizes that rather than serving as a form of rehabilitation as
intended, the American prison system functions as a powerful business which exploits prisoners to perform work
they would otherwise not do for little or no pay in order to gain profit. Applying the Marxist Theory, this paper
further hypothesizes that the American prison system not only functions similarly to slavery from a business aspect,
it also does so culturally as it seeks to keep offenders at the bottom of society even after their physical release from
incarceration.
Data collection was facilitated by using the document analysis technique, incorporating primary and secondary
sources. The primary sources included interviews with three prison industry experts; the secondary sources included
books, scholarly journals and Internet publications. The main factors that shaped the choice of these data collection
techniques were the abundance of material on the topic, amount of time, and the significant extensiveness of the
issue itself.
4. Data Analysis
The data analysis that follows consists of three subsections. The first subsection is an analysis of the relationship
between the institution of slavery that existed in the United States years ago and the prison system that exists in the
United States today. The second subsection is an analysis of the lasting effects of imprisonment on not only former
convicts, but also on their families, communities, and society as a whole. The final subsection consists of interviews
of multiple people on both subjects, as well as their suggestions for solution.
4.1. The Relationship between Slavery and Prisons in America
The functioning of the prison system in America is non-surprisingly, dangerously reminiscent of the manner in
which the institution of slavery functioned in this nation in the past. According to Alfred Edmond Jr., “American
prisons have replaced the institution of slavery as a for-profit driven system for creating and maintaining a
permanent second-class population with little or no rights as citizens, even for those who have paid their debt to
society and ostensibly have a clean slate” (Edmund, Jr. 2001). There are many obvious similarities between the
prison system as it exists in America and slavery. First, both institutions were used as tools to generate income to
secure the American economy and the prosperity of many already wealthy corporate officials. American prisons
serve as an additional market where corporations are able to not only sell their products at inflated prices but also
have products manufactured at cheap prices through the exploitation of prison labor. Through contracts with private
prison owners and governments, corporations are able to profit from wages made by prisoners and funds sent by
families, and exploit an extremely low-wage pool with a seemingly unlimited supply of potential new employees
and ultimately capitalize on the incarcerated American individuals who have fallen victim to this corrupt system
(Kilgore, 2012).
In addition to the economic similarities between the American prison system and the institution of slavery, the
tactics used by the power players of both institutions were and are also dangerously alike. During the period of
slavery, overseers and slave owners used the divide and conquer tactic to keep slaves from forming alliances to
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revolt against their oppressors. House slaves were turned against field slaves, as the former were conditioned to
believe that they were better than their counterparts because they had lighter skin and were therefore closer to being
White (Scott, 1976). In American prisons today, similar tactics are used; however, instead of skin color, inmates are
often divided by wardrobes. In some facilities, prisoners in the general population are forced to wear jumpsuits,
while prisoners with minor authority (often workers) are allowed to wear a specific color pants and shirts (varies by
prison). In other facilities, the color code of an individual’s wardrobe is determined by his/her behavior, with those
considered “well behaved” offered more privileges than those who are disobedient (Gillin, 1929). Individuals with
authority and privileges within the prison often do not associate with those who lack the two, out of fear of losing
their status (Gillin, 1929). In any case, the separation of prisoners based on color coordination of their wardrobes
successfully separates prisoners, thereby stopping them from forming bonds strong enough to fight against the
system oppressing them.
Additionally, the harsh conditions, violence, malnutrition, poor healthcare and inadequate living conditions that
American slaves experienced in the past currently plague those trapped in the American prison system.
Unfortunately, for the victims of this system, these processes are 100% legal even after all slaves were freed by the
Emancipation Proclamation and slavery was thought to be made illegal by the ratification of the 13th Amendment,
which states that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall
have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction” (Legal
Information Institute, n.d.). Therefore, due to the sophisticated language of the 13th Amendment, the enslavement of
anyone convicted of a crime is not only completely legal but also constitutional.
4.2 The Lasting Effects of Incarceration
Currently, the United States represents approximately only 5% of the entire world’s population; yet, it has over 25%
of the population of prisoners throughout the world, with the nation’s entire correctional population (including those
awaiting trial, on probation, or on parole) topping 7.3 million Americans (Biordan & McDonald, 2009). Annually,
the care of each prisoner is estimated between $25,000 and $45,000; yet, state and federal governments and private
corporations continue to build new prisons, and the number of imprisoned Americans continues to increase (Biordan
& McDonald, 2009). With such a massive number of prisoners, despite a national decline in crime over the last
decade, one must question why these state and federal governments continue to spend large amounts of money on an
obviously ineffective system. Also, what do those in support of the prison system as it currently exists stand to gain?
In reality, the answer to these questions is obvious: corporate benefit. Corporate business owners, private prison
owners and politicians are the primary beneficiaries of the Prison Industrial Complex. As during the period of
slavery in the United States when slave owners were able to exploit slaves for free labor to produce their personal
capital and gain economic security, beneficiaries of the Prison Industrial Complex exploit prisoners to produce and
secure personal economic prosperity. As many scholars of the punishment industry have shown, regardless of the
labor prisoners provide to service the larger economy (either private or public), prisons increasingly function in the
United States economy as answers to the devastation unleashed by the dual forces of Reagonomics and the
globalization of capital (Gilmore, n.d.).
Corporate business owners, private prison owners, and all others of the Prison Industrial Complex benefit from the
free or extremely cheap hard labor of prisoners across the nation who produces an assortment of products and
services. Prisoners who are at all compensated for their work can receive up to $5 per day, which is spent in the
prison canteen on overpriced items necessary for survival, such as toilet paper and toothpaste, thereby again
benefiting the owners of the prison (Wagner, 2003).
Meanwhile, as with many aspects of American society, “as the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.” While the
Prison Industrial Complex benefits a select few, millions of men, women and children are negatively impacted and
extremely inconvenienced by this system as it exists. In addition to the massive amount of tax dollars spent to keep
this current system functioning, many social discrepancies are far greater. As John Gleissner notes, “Breadwinners
are lost, families destroyed, more kids grow up without fathers or mothers, welfare costs increase, the entire sex
ratio is thrown out of balance and prisoners face grim prospects when released” (Gleissner, 2010). The false notion
that individuals will become rehabilitated by being kept in small quarters or forced to endure harsh labor has led to
the disenfranchisement of many low-income families and communities, as well as the social and mental
imprisonment of former physical prisoners. The imprisonment of any member of a family transforms and ultimately
weakens the structure of that family, thereby making the success and, in many cases, the survival of the family
extremely difficult. In situations involving one or more children where one parent is incarcerated, the parent with
custody must often work twice as hard as average parents to make ends meet. In addition to this, these parents also
often overcompensate in an attempt to fill the empty void caused by the lack of the presence of the other parent in
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the child/children’s lives. Parental support of and attention to children is a major component of successful childhood
development and children who lack these significant factors are vulnerable to negative outside influences, including,
but not limited to, peer pressure, gangs and drugs (Gleissner, 2010; Parenti, 2000).
In addition to the negative effects felt by families and communities during the imprisonment of individuals and the
harsh conditions individuals endure while physically imprisoned, the current structure of the Prison Industrial
Complex ensures the oppression, mental imprisonment and social discrimination of convicts, even after their time
has been served and their debt to society has been paid (Haney, 2001). Over a century ago, Emma Goldman, a
political activist, wrote: “Year after year, the gates of prison hells return to the an emancipated, deformed, will-less,
shipwrecked crew of humanity, with the Cain mark on their foreheads, their hopes crushed all their natural
inclinations thwarted with nothing but hunger and inhumanity to greet them, these victims soon sink back into crime
as the only possibility of existence” (Goldman, 1969). Originally, the mark of Cain referred to a curse placed on
Cain by God in the book of Genesis (Bible, 1972); however, today, it is represented by the convicted felon mark that
remains on the records of former prisoners for the rest of their lives (Gleissner, 2010).
This present-day mark of Cain enables employers, landlords, other private officials as well as governments to
legally discriminate against former prisoners and deny them access to basic services and necessities for survival in
society such as employment, housing, public assistance, etc. In addition to the disqualification from these basic
services and necessities, former prisoners throughout the United States are denied the right to vote and/or are
automatically excluded from serving on public juries based on their criminal records. Recently, these forms of
discrimination have been cited as being reminiscent of the discrimination which existed during the Jim Crow era
(Alexander, 2010). Ultimately, former prisoners are stripped of the rights, freedoms and services enjoyed by other
Americans, subjecting them to return to participation in illegal activities for survival resulting in recidivism, a
revolving door of prisoners which ensures the continuation and security of the Prison Industrial Complex.
4.3 Expert Interviews
To gain a holistic view of the similarities between the institution of slavery and the American prison system as it
exists today, three interviews were conducted with experts in various disciplines who have experience with the
topic. All three interviewees have at some point during their careers studied the institution of slavery and have
encountered current or former prisoners in their work or daily lives. The information obtained from conducting all
three expert interviews gave a more personal and direct interpretation of the similarities in the functioning of the
institution of slavery and the American prison system, as well as the lasting social and psychological effects of both
aforementioned systems. The interviews were conducted with a psychologist, a human rights worker, and a former
prisoner.
The first interview was conducted with a professor at Howard University who has a doctoral degree in
psychology. The interviewee currently teaches various courses at Howard University, while conducting research on
various topics including those on the lasting effects of the institution of slavery on people of African descent today.
Although slavery has been outlawed in the United States for hundreds of years, the American prison system can be
viewed as slavery by another name because of its practices. According to the professor, “In every sense of the word
prison is a form of slavery. Life is limited, mobility is limited, and prisoners are under psychological control and
forced to do tasks to benefit other people. In that case it becomes enslavement and the control of someone else’s
body and mind.” However, the prison system in America has not always functioned as the industrial complex it
appears to be today, in which individuals are imprisoned and forced to endure harsh conditions until they are
released back in to society. In the past, individuals were able to learn from their mistakes, be rehabilitated and in
some cases educated while imprisoned which would improve their life conditions once released. The professor
pointed out: “I had friends who were incarcerated in early part of the 70s, many received rehabilitated. One got an
associate’s degree, went on to Syracuse University and currently has a PhD in psychology.” Looking deeper into the
history of the United States reveals that during the Ronald Reagan Administration in the 1980s, the country
experienced a conservative shift and this is when the birth of the Prison Industrial Complex occurred. The professor
noted: “There was a decline in the manufacturing sector and people needed employment. Prisons employ massive
amounts of people including guards, food service individuals and many others, which marked the beginning of a
complex.” This system as it currently exists benefits only the wealthy while it has proven to be detrimental to
current and former prisoners, families, communities and ultimately the remainder of society. Rather then locking
criminals away for various amounts of time, then releasing them back into society and expecting them to be changed
individuals, a system should be implemented in which these individuals are provided with skills which will make
them become better people. As the professor added, “Prison should include some form of service while the
individual is learning. To treat severe alcoholism in the past, following detoxification alcoholics were forced to work
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with people less fortunate than themselves for a set amount of time. If the country instituted something similar for
prisoners, this would teach them not only to value their own circumstances but help them to build skills such as
patience, to help them become a new person” (personal interview, March 6, 2012).
The second interviewee, a human rights worker and professor of Political Science at Howard University offered
his thoughts on the reasons why individuals seek to keep the system functioning as it currently is. It is a harsh reality
that the Prison Industrial Complex is not the work of one selfish group, but instead the work of various groups
within a system that allow it to perpetuate and grow to benefit a financial minority within the nation. According to
the professor and human rights worker, “The system of capitalism which encompasses everyone keeps this
oppressive system going, so ultimately everyone contributes to it not working or working in the wrong manner.” To
better understand the concept of the influence of the capitalist society on the creation and perpetuation of the Prison
Industrial Complex, an understanding of the originators of capitalism—i.e. the Founding Fathers—is needed. In the
words of the interviewee, “They [the Founding Fathers] came over here to escape the system they left but created
the new system in the image of that system they ran from with their own variations of it. The exclusions of people
who were lesser than them which they deemed to be criminals, primarily poor people, something less than useful to
society.” The reality that the Founding Fathers did not value those who differed from them was revealed through the
institution of slavery and the original laws of American society in which certain groups of people, specifically
people of African descent and other members of the lower-class, were not entitled to the rights and privileges which
were granted to other citizens.
Although the Constitution is often viewed as the foundation of the laws of this nation, it is often debated whether
a document written nearly 300 years can accurately relate to issues which arise today. According to the respondent,
“We should review the constitution and its amendments every 15-20 years and see how they apply to life today so
that individuals who were not viewed as citizens at the time these documents were written can have a voice in
current society. For the people who do not want to revisit these documents and want society to remain stationary, we
must remember that this is more than likely because they are benefiting from the way society is functioning at that
particular moment.” The Thirteenth Amendment was ratified by Congress to end slavery following the Civil War.
Nonetheless, the fancy language of this amendment outlaws slavery in the United States, except after due process,
thereby making the enslavement of prisoners legal, even in the 21st Century. Should Americans revisit this
document, the Prison Industrial Complex would more than likely need to be replaced with a more humane system
which rehabilitates criminals and corporations would need to find sources other than prisoners for free or cheap
labor (personal interview January 19, 2012).
While the first and second interviewees shared their ideas on the issue based on research and personal and
professional encounters with current and former prisoners, the final interviewee provided first-hand insight on the
similarities of the treatments experienced by prisoners to those of slaves in the past, as well as the lasting
psychological and social effects prisoners endure after they are released from incarceration. Like slaves in the past,
the lives of prisoners are completely controlled by the head of the institution where they are sent to serve their
sentence. They are told when and where they can eat, sleep, shower, read and fulfill any other task they would like
to perform every day. As the interviewee pointed out, “Some of the officers take pride in letting you know everyday
that you can’t do anything you want without their permission. It’s like they get joy out of being in control of a bunch
of other adults”. As if the fact that prisoners are not allowed to make any decisions for their own lives is not bad
enough, they are also often forced to succumb to verbal and physical abuse from correction officers and other
officials within the institution. In the words of the interviewee, “Because of their [correction officers] badge and
title, they think they can say or do anything they want to us [inmates], without facing any consequences. They don’t
know anything about [us], where we’re from or why we’re in there, but they judge us and because of the judgments
they make, they treat us like animals. Some of them yell, some spit, some even hit us but they wouldn’t do any of
that if they were in the streets.” Unfortunately, it is a harsh reality that often prisoners are abused in prison by other
prisoners as well as officials within the prison, which has a great effect on the psyche of the prisoner. According to
the interviewee, “A lot of people go back home and get into fights over stupid things because when you’re locked up
all you know is to fight, you are always fighting to protect yourself and to survive. So when you get home you think
everything is a threat to your survival because you still have that state of mind.” Due to the harsh and often violent
culture that exists within prisons, it is often difficult for prisoners to re-adjust to the relatively calm culture that
exists within society. This reality combined with the fact that former prisoners have difficulty obtaining places of
residence, employment, social benefits, etc. plays a major role in the high recidivism rate within the United States
(personal interview, February 21, 2012).
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5. Conclusion
Throughout American slave history, slavers were able to enslave other human beings under the alleged notion that
these other human beings were unruly, uncivilized, and incapable of being productive members of society on their
own, therefore needing instruction and guidance from other educated already productive members of society. The
spread of these false notions enabled the beneficiaries of the institution of slavery to justify the often harsh working
conditions, malnutrition, and inadequate living conditions which slaves were forced to endure at their hands to
maintain the economic security of the nation (primarily the South). In present-day American society, similar tactics
are being used to defend and protect the Prison Industrial Complex to ensure the economic security of many
corporate and government officials and prison owners.
This paper is not advocating that the American prison system should be eliminated and criminals be absolved of
their crimes. It does, however, examine the issues within the current system that seemingly point to the fact that the
priority of the American prison system is to generate capital rather than rehabilitation. In a letter about his
experiences and the violence he encountered in prison, a 20th Century prisoner wrote: “I’m beginning to believe that
U.S.A. stands for the Underprivileged Slaves of America” (Gilmore, 2010). One must decide for him/herself the
accuracy of his statement!
6. References
1. Bible (1972). King James Version.
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