The multibillion-dollar US prison industry -- and how to dismantle it

This textbook offers a blueprint for the constantly changing prison industry. Each chapter details the origin story of privatization for a sector of the industry; how much money is in it for the corporations involved; the methods they use to extract resources from public coffers and impacted communities; which corporations are most active; and the harm they cause people, families and communities. It also includes powerful first-person narratives that are critical to understanding the impact privatization has had on people.

This is a free, self-guided, public education course about the prison industry and the fight to build a world without it. The syllabus includes weekly reading assignments, discussion questions, short videos, radio segments and more. It also includes the recorded class series "Punishment + Profit," featuring 50 national experts, produced in collaboration with The Greene Space at New York Public Radio.

This report aggregates critical information about the over 4,100 corporations that profit off mass incarceration and mass surveillance. Designed to help advocates, litigators, journalists, investors, artists and the public challenge the commercialization of the criminal legal system, the report includes harm scores, divestment recommendations, prison labor flags and much more.