Prison Industrial Complex

Catalog description

The Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) designates “the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems,” according to national grassroots organization Critical Resistance. The United States leads the world in the number of people it incarcerates, and the consequences of criminal convictions leaves millions of people within systems of government surveillance. Communities of color, especially Black people, members of the LGBTIA+ communities, and those with mental health disabilities face mass criminalization disproportionally. This course analyzes the legal, racial, and political threads that allow the PIC to shape people’s lives.