Prison Industry Series

The Perpetual Prisoner Machine by Joel Dyer, 2000, Excerpts

Law enforcement’s budgets have been greatly increased as a result of hard-on-crime policies being passed on both the state and federal level, and increased budgets mean bigger salaries and new equipment for America’s cops, which explains their significant financial support of hard-on-crime politicians via campaign contributions.

There were two groups in California that lobbied hard for three-strikes – the NRA and the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the union that represents the state’s prison guards, parole officers, and prison counselors. When it comes to three strikes, the guards’ union significantly outspent the teachers’ union, which opposed the law, even though the guards’ union was only about one-tenth the size of the teachers’ union at the time.

Prior to three strikes, guards made a little les than teachers, somewhere around $24,000 a year and their union had only 4,000 members. Now that three strikes and other hard-on-crime measures backed by the union have gone into effect – the union claims that thirty-eight out of forty-four of the bills it pushed in the California legislature in the 1980s and 1990s have been enacted – guards have seen their salaries increase to approximately $55,000 per year, and their union has grown to over 24,000 strong, with nearly $10 million a year in dues coming in. As one might expect, the union continues to use it ever-increasing influence to push for still more hard-on-crime measures that will further enhance its bottom line. It is a strategy that is clearly working.

Cool Hand Luke