River Hallinan, J.T. (2003) Going Book Report

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For example, he notes that one out of eleven men is estimated to go through the correctional system throughout his life but the figures for nonwhites are even higher. Forty-nine percent of inmates are African-American and eighteen percent are Latino. What happens is that many of these black inmates are taken from cities and locked up in prisons built in rural areas. Residents of these communities are white men and women who have limited, if any, experience of living with people of color and are of working-class background. Some of them are young men right out of high school. Not surprisingly, this encounter often leads to violence and racial tension. Hallinan writes that "it is hard to ignore that those getting rich are usually white and those in prison are usually not" (p. xiii). In other words, the profitability of the prison-industrial complex is not only corrupting the system by turning inmates into assets, but also contributing to the racial tension which still has not been erased from American society.

Some of his assertions are controversial. He emphasizes the pernicious influence of the private prison industry but that industry began in 1983 and the number of private prisons today is around 150. Most of the prisons are still federally funded though Hallinan notes that the relatively small number of private prisons have developed a culture that has influenced other prisons -- namely, an emphasis "not on producing an improved inmate, one who will commit fewer crimes when released, but on producing a cheaper inmate" (p. 145). And given that the number of private prisons is growing and that the concept is being viewed as acceptable and effective by ever greater number of corrections officers, criminologists, politicians, and ordinary Americans, the influence is also likely to grow.

Another controversial point Hallinan makes is the idea that there is an identical logic behind military-industrial complex and the prison-industrial complex.

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He argues that the U.S. government exaggerated the threat of Communism in the 1950s to dramatically increase the defense budget and similarly the correctional system in the 1980s and '90s exaggerated the threat of crime to justify prison boom. There is always a risk of downplaying the real danger in such arguments, as there was indeed Communist bloc armed with nuclear weapons during 1950s and there were criminal gangs increasing the number of street shootings in 1980s. Hallinan, however, has a point because the crime rate does not justify the titanic prison boom that America has witnessed in the last thirty years. And there is a ground for linking prison-industrial complex to the military-industrial complex. Consider, for instance, the $77.5 million prison in Wallens Ridge, Virginia, which is "identical to the sophisticated sixteen-foot-high fence used by the Israeli government on the Golan Heights, according to the warden" (p. 204).

Going Up the River's only significant weakness is Hallinan's overemphasis on the role of corporations as the driving force behind prison boom. He does not, for example, discuss the fact that paroles have been decreased or even eliminated in some states, which might have accounted for the greater prison population. He does not also entertain the idea that tougher and longer sentences may be one of the reasons….....

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