Addicts as Prisoners

I don't mean to copy Robin's post, but I'm really glad the prison poster and the addiction poster were on the same day of lecture, with the prison and the industrial complex following the addiction poster. The connection is inevitable in our culture as our means (the science) of treating addicts connects to this new era of sentencing them to slave labor (the industrial complex).

My first concept for my "intervention piece" failed due to lack of credible sources, and my second choice was privatized prisons. I changed again because I couldn't think of an actual intervention that would make a difference... not that my final project made any difference. I am very passionate about the prison system and am extremely against the privatization of the system.

Addicts are addicts because they can no longer control their behavior. It has become so much a part of their identity that they can no longer rationalize the entire decision making process. I have a bit of experience with both addiction and the prison system and feel that addicts need help and prisons are meant for horrible, potentially dangerous offenders. The industrial complex invites a misshapen structure to the “correctional” process. In reality, how much bad behavior is corrected in prison? It invites corporations to make private profit by keeping prisons full and productive. It continues the value of private profit over human life much like many corporate processes.
This system shapes policy and the way addicts are viewed in society. In the poster presentation about addicts, I heard “do they think these actually work? When viewing the “stay off drugs” clip from the add council. Are they marketing rehabilitation or that addicts are disgusting? I couldn’t tell, but our treatment of addicts hasn’t changed. They are sent to prison and in some states, forced to make products (like office furniture) that will be sold (to government agencies) to make money for large corporations.