#12: The Prison-Industrial Complex
Episode description
One out of 50 US citizens is under the thumb of the Prison-Industrial Complex at any given time. That's seven million of us right now! 2.3 million are in prison or jail, and another 4.5 million are on parole or probation (one mistake away from being thrown back in). And each of them represents a paycheck: for COs, for investors, for prison labor contractors, and for probation officers. There are a lot of people who stand to lose out if we end the war on drugs and allow our prisons to empty out.
Almost half of all federal inmates are locked up for drugs, and another 200,000 state level inmates are doing time for a drug charge, along-side thousands more who were never caught with drugs, but committed crimes to get them (like me). But since prisoners are the one group in the United States whom we are allowed to hate (M. Alexander), those of us outside prison tend to ignore the problem...until it effects us personally.