Stop the treatment industrial complex
“Mass incarceration is a moral abomination that must be acknowledged, repudiated and unraveled. Prison-like treatment facilities such as forensic psychiatric hospitals and civil commitment centers are also growing in both number and enrollment. Government statistics suggest that employment in these areas will increase by 22.8 percent by 2022.”
…a new system has emerged that bears many of the same features. You could call it the “treatment-industrial complex” — the growing network of facilities and companies built to handle court-ordered community corrections, correctional medical care, and mental health and civil commitment facilities. Community correction programs that occur outside of prison walls are the most lucrative opportunity for the treatment-industrial complex. The majority of individuals involved in the criminal justice system, roughly two-thirds, are in community programs, not behind bars. Programs like home confinement, day reporting, drug and alcohol treatment, probation, parole, and remote electronic monitoring are expanding and proliferating as alternatives to incarceration continue to gain momentum.
Original Article (Politico):
Stop the treatment industrial complex
Artwork Fair Use: Rowell Brokaw and The Miller Hull Partnership
