New stories  0 New Stories Since Your Last Visit  The Urban
Politico Unmasks the Prison Industrial Complex  What lurks
behind bars?   The Urban Politico is taking on the prison
industrial complex in a new series. Below is an excerpt from
Part I.  The Prison Industrial Complex refers to the
interweaving of private business and government interests. Its
twofold purpose is profit and social control. Its public
rationale is the fight against crime. Using the same fear tactic
that the right tends to use to justify there attempts at
violating the constitution, the prison industrial complex is
justified because we are told over and over how dangerous our
society is and how unsafe we are in our own neighborhoods. We
can then feel comfortable about locking up any and everyone who
intimidates us.  Across the nation, thousands of new prisons are
being built, as crime rates fluctuate from state to state. In
the last 20 years, the state of California alone has constructed
21 new prisons while in the same amount of time, i