The Prison Industrial Complex theory proposes that institutional racism and the way private organizations influence government policy and social norms result in the subjugation of minority males through the use of America's prison system. This paper seeks to unravel the political, economic and legal aspect of the country's penology system, using the backdrop of history to illustrate how the Prison Industrial Complex functions similarly to the institutions of slavery and Jim Crow, in which members of one racial group benefits from the subjugation of other minority racial groups from a legal, financial, political and socioeconomic standpoint. I will argue specifically that the War on Drugs, police militarization and the complicity of the Supreme Court have resulted in the criminalizing of entire black communities that have already been rendered weak through a substandard education system. Finally this paper will provide a thorough rebuttal to the concept of a post-racial state with the election of Barack Obama as America's first black president, and will look in depth at how Obama's presidency and particularly prison policies have affected African-American communities.

The Prison Industrial Complex and the role it plays in the Political Economy of Post-Racial America