Main | Gustave de Molinari. The Production of Security. 1849. »
February 26, 2005
Lots of topics
The following list is a number of ideas that could use further research and investigation to specifically address in scholarly papers.
1. Does the Immigration and Nationalization Service use prisons and the war on drugs, to fuel the war in IRAQ, by influencing the bargaining conditions of impoverished individuals?
2. How similar are the lives of the inmate and the lives of the soldier? How similar are the roles of the warden and the drill sergeant?
3. Are prison operation policies likely to be more harsh and controlling in a contracted out private prison or a typical state run prison? So called private prisons are built, designed and financed pre-emptive to government contracts, along the attitude, "if you build them they will come." This is just market response. If these facilities are available as a resource, states will use them to cut costs. State operation is unsustainable. If you have a Solitary housing unit unfilled. The state will find people to put in it, for example 17 year old gang members. How much does cheapening the marginal cost of incarceration to the state encourage liberal sentencing?
3. Prisons take money out of the pockets of society and put it into the pockets of the government. When you ask any typical citizen, why they pay their taxes, they answer that they're afraid of going to jail.
4. How does prison architecture influence the sociological ideas of humanism, control, and autonomy. The current tools implemented in these design processes are to maximize the goals of the state. The incentives of the state do not encourage rehabilitation or restitution. Private firms would.
5. How much benefit can the average consumer benefit from effective prison labor? Could prison produced goods and services give Wal-Mart a run for their money?
6. How do you get a hostile, uncooperative, and unwilling criminal to produce wealth to be repaid to his victims?
7. Prisons don't help America's drug problem. If you're a drug addict you might prefer prison life because it is easier to get drugs than on the outside.
8. Start a company that only hires ex-convicts. More employee controls, lower wages. Succeed then offer services to the state instead of incarceration.
Posted by djdamico at February 26, 2005 8:31 AM