The Prison Industry: How It Works and Who Profits

by Bianca Tylek

A meticulous, unprecedented, and often shocking exposé of who profits from mass incarceration, culminating in a compelling case for abolition

Based on years of research by the criminal justice organization Worth Rises—best known for campaigns that have revolutionized prison telecom and made prison and jail communication free in cities and states around the country—The Prison Industry maps the range of ways in which private corporations, often with their government partners, make money off our grossly overincarcerated prison population. It further details the extraction of wealth from incarcerated people and their families, who have been brutalized by overpolicing, mass criminalization, mass incarceration, and mass surveillance.

Chapters on labor, telecom, healthcare, community corrections, and more explore the origin story of privatization for each sector and how much money is in it for the corporations involved. Stretching far beyond private prisons to look at all the sectors that benefit from incarceration, the authors illuminate the methods used to extract resources from public coffers and communities, which corporations are most active and how they partner with governments, and the harms these profit-based approaches to justice cause people, families, and communities.

Ultimately, The Prison Industry makes a compelling case for prison abolition and serves as a tool for the dismantling and destruction of this wholly oppressive system—the ashes of which we can use to create a better world built on care, not cages.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics

272 pages, Paperback

Published April 8, 2025

Reviews

[Sophia Sulimirski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone knows the US prison system is horrifying, but WOW I learned so much from this book. Fuels some heavy frustration and fear about how much of our economic system is dominated by exploitative private corporations profiting off of suffering. Read somewhat like a textbook, but still packed with accessible facts.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very reader friendly while still offering a plethora of important facts and figures. Many of them depressing but to be forewarned is to be forearmed. The authors do an excellent jobs drawing lines from the 80s and 90s to the present showing how complicit the government is in keeping the privatized prison system going and why the incarceration system has been twisted to serve capitalism’s needs (can’t everything be traced back to capitalism?).

The chapters are clearly defined and offer short descriptive definitions at the beginning so you know what each will be covering in case the terms are not clear or part of the reader’s lexicon which I found extremely helpful.

Highly highly recommend.

[Taylor Mingus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and The New Press for this ARC!

4.5 ✨

I loved the way this book was organized. Each chapter features an overview of the topic, financial information, personal stories, and more in-depth explanations of the issues. Some topics I was more familiar with than others but I did find it to be well researched. This would be more useful as an introduction to the prison industry as a whole, so use caution if this a topic you have a lot of knowledge about. I also appreciated the author not inserting personal opinions into the book and letting the facts speak for themselves.

[Olivia Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book had a variety of interesting points and information included in it. however, it wasn’t that interesting on the whole; it felt like a stream of information with very little analysis to break it up. i would have loved more synthesis of the facts in order to present specific arguments as to how these aspects of the prison system can be improved. i think it didn’t captivate me mainly because of the flow of it— the format of the book and the way language was used made it feel like the argument was in response to a prompt for a school paper, instead of naturally using facts and anecdotes to paint a cohesive picture of a corrupt industry.

[Cassie Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew the U.S. prison system was awful but this was extremely eye opening about the depths of the cruelty that this country inflicts on those in the system and their families. This was organized very well and made it easy to follow along. I appreciated how well researched it was as well. I will be recommending this to everyone I know to spread the knowledge.

[Io Perl-Strahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great overview of how the private prison industry functions, quick and accessible (not nuanced) writing, an efficient tool for raising consciousness of this predatory system that makes executives rich by directly harming the incarcerated. I like how it stays soberly rooted to the material because following the money is dramatic enough.

[Champ Champenstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very reader friendly introduction to the depth of money within the PIC. TBH I wish it had gone a little more in depth but overall had solid information.

I personally love books like this that make everything very straightforward and simple to understand for anyone.

[Shayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good primer for anyone looking to learn more about the capitalistic drivers behind incarceration in the US.

[Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Formatting took a bit to get used to and the editing could have been better but overall a very useful and enlightening primer