Language of Liberation: What is the Prison Industrial Complex?
Fall 2023 Community Reporting Fellow Donald Jacobs, talks with abolitionist Ernest Johnson about the meaning of ‘ubuntu’ and ways to counter the impact of the prison industrial complex.
Behind This Story | Louisiana currently has the second highest imprisonment rate in the nation, but our communities aren’t getting safer. What are the alternatives to mass incarceration? The Language of Liberation is a community resource produced by the Fall 2023 Community Reporting Fellows to make information on the prison abolition movement more accessible to community members so that we can begin to answer that question. This guide is part of a larger reporting series on youth incarceration and abolition. The guide features definitions of abolition terms and the perspectives of local abolitionists working on. Have questions or comments? Email us at ledeneworleans@gmail.com.
By Donald Jacobs
What is the prison industrial complex? I spent several weeks researching the term last fall. First, I learned that the prison industrial complex is a system that involves the government, institutions of imprisonment–like jails, prisons and detention centers–and the various prison agencies and businesses that benefit from selling goods and services to prison agencies. In the prison industrial complex, mass incarceration benefits private prisons and the businesses that support them. Imprisoning people can also be seen as a solution to economic, social, and political problems.
It’s important to point out people incarcerated in privately-run prisons are a small share of all those incarcerated in the United States. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, just 8% of all incarcerated people are held in private prisons. The vast majority are in publicly-owned prisons and jails. Still, in Louisiana and many states there are many businesses that benefit from keeping people locked up, getting contracts for everything from phone calls to food and health services. The prison industrial complex is a vicious system that thrives on mass incarceration.
The prison industrial complex also monetizes the labor of people who are incarcerated, often at the expense of their physical and emotional well-being. In my research, I learned about how this is happening here in Louisiana. In 2020, reporting by Southerly and Scalawag found the oil and gas industry was using people who are incarcerated to complete hazardous work through work release programs. One example of this was the Lafourche Parish Work Release Program, which regularly assisted the oil and gas industry in hiring incarcerated workers. In these types of programs, incarcerated workers face a difficult choice: accept working long hours in dangerous jobs for little pay or return to their cells.
This system is upheld by a number of U.S. corporations that benefit from prison labor. In January 2024, an investigation by the Associated Press found that some of the world’s largest food companies and most popular brands are linked to jobs performed by U.S. prisoners nationwide. In one example, the AP traced cattle tended by prisoners at Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola, to a Texas slaughterhouse that feeds into the supply chains of brands like McDonald’s, Walmart and Cargill. Prison labor is used to produce frozen foods for some of America’s largest restaurant and grocery chains.
Instead of rehabilitation being the norm, the prison industrial complex is designed to continue and even increase the amount of people locked up. The focus is on punishment and, as I learned in researching more about work release programs, figuring out how to use the bodies and labor of people who are incarcerated. If there is money to be made on running prisons and selling incarcerated people’s labor, then there is incentive to put more people in jails and prisons. The more punitive and harsh the sentences are for people convicted of crimes, the bigger the system gets. That has a harmful impact on my community, tearing apart local families and forever altering the lives of thousands of young people.
Community Voice: Ernest Johnson
I spoke with Ernest Johnson, founder and director of Ubuntu Village, to learn more about the impact of the prison industrial complex in New Orleans and what abolition looks like in our city. Johnson founded Ubuntu Village in 2015, motivated by his experiences after his son was accused of committing a crime at age 14.
Today, Ubuntu offers a range of support services for systems-involved youth and families, as well as intervention and mentorship programs aimed at interrupting violence and keeping young people out of jails and prisons.
Ubuntu is an ancient African word that means “humanity to others.” Johnson told me that seeing each other’s humanity is “a collective process” and at the core of the work Ubuntu Village does.
“We value every human being, the reflection of each one is looking through the lens of empathy and understanding that no one’s better than the other, right?” Johnson said. “We are all connected in a lot of common ways.”
Through his advocacy, Johnson works to empower youth who share many of the same challenges he faced growing up and lead them in a positive direction. Johnson said that community-based solutions are the key to countering the prison industrial complex and mass incarceration.
One of Ubuntu’s programs is INSTEAD, which works to intercept adults and children from the legal system and divert them back into the community. Specifically, the program is designed to divert children and adults who are facing prosecutions on charges where issues of mental health, substance use or trauma were at play in the arrest.
Ubuntu also runs the Parent Navigator Program at Orleans Parish Juvenile Court, which provides support and guidance to youth and families who need help navigating the court system. Ubuntu trains teams of parent navigators who have experienced the juvenile court system to offer support, guidance and resources to other parents who need it. The outcomes for youth are better when parents are informed and supported through court proceedings, Johnson said.
Johnson added that the process of returning home after incarceration, known as re-entry, also needs attention if we want to reduce the effect of the prison industrial complex on our communities. He said re-entry is difficult for formerly incarcerated people because there aren’t many resources to assist them outside of prison. Rehabilitation isn’t the focus inside jails and prisons; survival is.
We have to start looking at “making sure those people who are coming back home have the necessary tools that they need to be successful and not return to prison,” Johnson said.
Donald Jacobs is a storyteller and poet from New Orleans. Jacobs, who grew up in the St. Bernard Projects, uses poetry as a medium to reflect on his youth and feelings of entrapment as a young Black man. He is a Fall 2023 Community Reporting Fellow with Lede New Orleans.
Nijah Narcisse is a New Orleans born-and-bred creative writer and journalist, and an alumni of the Community Reporting Fellowship at Lede New Orleans. Narcisse now serves as Fellowship Producer at Lede New Orleans. She is the digital producer for this project.
This article is available to republish under a Creative Commons license. Read Lede New Orleans’ publishing guidelines here.
Support Lede New Orleans and its community-centered reporting by becoming a supporting donor.
To get weekly emails with New Orleans stories and events, sign up for Lede New Orleans’ newsletter.
