government approved a two hundred
million dollar expansion to the
Capricornia correctional center premier
anastasia polishe said the project would
provide an extra 164 cells all of this
in the name of jobs
welcome to the prison industrial complex
this is a term we rarely talk about in
Australia which is surprising given in
just one year between 2015 and 2016 the
number of people in adult prisons
increased by 8% critical resistance an
organization in the u.s. defines the
prison industrial complex as the
overlapping interests of government and
industry that use policing surveillance
and imprisonment as solutions to social
economic and political problems prison
abolitionists believe that we can’t
solve social problems through profit
eighteen point five percent of
Australian prisons are privately owned
which Dwarfs America’s private prison
population of eight percent there are
three private contractors responsible
for managing prisons in Australia
these are g4s G EO group and surco
however prisons also employ the services
of telecommunications linen and food
suppliers and they also profit from
cheap prison labor in Australia
prisoners have made everything from
cushion covers to toolboxes so of course
in the name of corporate interest when
policymakers are faced with the issue of
prison overcrowding the default solution
is to build more prisons with each new
prison each new cell in each invisible
eyes body private companies profit it’s
one more business venture where they can
extrapolate money from the state and
cheap prison labor from some of the most
marginalized people in our society we’re
told that prisons are the solutions to
injustice ‘as yet they are the same
places where grave and just
bizarre occurring the Royal Commission
into the Don Dao Detention Center
proves that young men and women are
being tortured at the hands of prison
guards so if we can’t solve social
problems through profit how can you help
to sever the ties between prison
profiteering industries and our
government well just as what happened
with the tobacco industry and more
recently with fossil fuels divestment
can be used as one tactic to help hold
to account corporations which build
support and provide supplies to prisons
within a few minutes you can find out
who your bank and super fund invests in
and then you can spend a few minutes
cooling up for example Australian super
which invests in g4s and ask them to
stop investing in the operation of
private prisons together with friends
and family you can withdraw your funds
from banks and super funds and divest
from the prison industrial complex
however don’t get me wrong
radical freedom cannot be achieved
through divestment alone we need justice
for every young person in don dale we
need justice for kevin henry we need
justice for the families of ms du and
wayne fella morrison and we need justice
for the families of over 400 black
deaths in custody and the time that it
takes you to research these names these
prisons and these corporations instilled
with caring for people is only a blip of
time in comparison to the trauma
experienced by anybody who has faced
time behind bars with surveillance
around their ankle take responsibility
for where you invest your money because
it’s time to start solving social
problems through community-based solutions