Using Social Theory to Analyze the Private Prison Industry
1. Using Social Theory to Analyze
the Private Prison Industry
By: The Dirty Durkheims
2. Objectives
• To inform community about America’s private
prison industry
• To use people’s responses to blog series to show
different views of private prison industry
• To inform community about social theorists:
– Used to explain motives behind creation of this
industry
– Used to show how privatizing prisons is a reflection of
racial/economic injustices affecting marginalized
groups
3. Why Private Prisons?
We realized that many people are unaware of the
private prison industry’s existence, so we created a
blog series to spread awareness and to view people’s
opinion on the subject. Each group member focused
on a different aspect of the industry and used various
social theorists to further examine their topic.
4. Methods
• Research private prison industry
• Use social theorists for analysis
• Create a blog series with this information
5. Riana’s Methods
• Parallels between Foucault’s idea
of docile bodies and private prison
labor
• Used Discipline and Punish to
analyze info on prison blogs
– People of all education levels
critiqued negative aspects of private
prisons
6. Larissa’s Methods
• Intersection between private prisons, immigration, and
race
• Video about exploitation of immigrants within the private
prison industry
– Created by Cuentame, organization that raises awareness about
issues affecting Latino community
• Articles from the New York Times, American Civil Liberties
Union (ACLU) and National Public Radio (NPR)
• Applied ÉmileDurkheim’s “other” theory and sociologist
John Rex’s theory on race and its relationship with
structural conditions
7. Jessie’s Methods
• How Karl Marx and Max Weber’s theories
correlate with how private prisons cut corners to
maximize their profit
• Journal article on State Punishment and Private
Prisons
– different aspects of the goal oriented institution of
private prisons
• Videos showing consequences of cutting corners
in private prisons
– Violence, inexperienced guards, fear
• Prison Profiteers to enhance arguments
8. Emma’s Methods
• The direct and indirect connections between
the private prison industry and the school-to-
prison pipeline
– They both target youth of color
– How does society view privatizing juvenile
facilities and youth of color?
10. Effectiveness in Informing Public
• Did not have much time to receive responses
from public (2 responses on course website)
• Some posts were re-tweeted/favored by
random twitter users
– One post shared on “PrisonReformMovement”
Facebook page by twitter user
– Effective in informing public through these social
media platforms
11. Responses
• 7 “likes” on the PrisonReformMovement
Facebook page
• 2 responses on course website
• Discussion with family/friends
• Parts of our project re-tweeted 3 times, 4
people favored tweets
– Response from one twitteruser: “The abuse and
potential for further abuse of this industry
disgusts me…”
12. How Did this Project Challenge our
Thinking about Social
Theory/Problems?
• Although social theorists’ work published
years ago, ideas can still be applied to today’s
social problems
– Why social problems exist/how to solve these
problems
– Ex. Weber’s theory about “goal-oriented society”
provides deeper analysis of why poor conditions
in private prisons
• Realized importance of what we’ve been
learning
