- “Battle”, “Blow”, “Counterblow” between Mr. Mulroy and Mr. Strickland.
Steven J. Mulroy is the District Attorney for Shelby County, Tennessee. He was elected DA in August 2022. And Jim Strickland Jr. is the current mayor of Memphis, Tennessee, serving since 2016. Those government positions are very important for the lives of local residents, and they have great impacts and can have great effects on the local community.
It was being talked about “a back and forth between Steve Mulroy and Jim Strickland” over getting tough on crime in the city of Memphis and Shelby County recently. And local media defined it as “battle”, “blow”, “counterblow.”, “DA responds to Mayor’s criticism.” And Mr. Mulroy said, “Three strikes, you’re out.”
However, we have to add another name for the ongoing discourse about, from, and between Mr. Mulroy and Mr. Strickland. The third name is “PIC” which is the abbreviation of “Prison-Industrial Complex.”
According to Tufts University Prision Divestment, current estimates indicate that there are approximately 2.3 million people incarcerated in the United States, with an additional 4.5 million people on probation or parole. The US has the world’s highest incarceration rate and, despite representing under 5% of the global population, the US holds almost 20% of the global prison population (Prison Policy Initiative).
- What is the Prison-Industrial Complex(PIC)?
Abolitionist organization Critical Resistance explained it as “the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) is a term we use to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems.”
The prison-industrial complex (PIC) is said to be a term, coined after the “military-industrial complex” of the 1950s, used by scholars and activists to describe the many relationships between institutions of imprisonment (such as prisons, jails, detention facilities, and psychiatric hospitals) and the various businesses that benefit from them.(Source: Wikipedia)
They say that the PIC is not just the prisons themselves or incarceration. The PIC is said to be an interlocking web of many different systems that assure the powerful will stay in power. In terms of “PIC”, there exists such issues of (A) the expansive network of people and parties with vested interests in mass incarceration, and of (B) how this network functions to fill prisons and support mass incarceration.
It seems that there are such players in terms of the field or the industry including, but not limited to government and law enforcement agencies, private prison companies, suppliers and service providers, lobbying groups and politicians, and so forth. Justice Education Project analyzed like this. “Some of these systems include prisons, the bail system, the police, courts, and more.
The Project continued to say, “Private prison companies rake in huge profits for incarcerating people and politicians garner support for being “tough on crime.” All of these people and companies profit greatly from incarcerating, transporting, feeding and exploiting prisoners.”
Such players are not the only players in the field. Even media play their roles for that. It is said that mass media helps to depict a large variety of oppressed peoples (people of color, poor people, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, youth) as criminals or people who need to be stopped.”
ChatGPT says, “Some politicians and interest groups may support policies that lead to increased incarceration rates or longer sentences, which can further the growth of the prison system.” It is said that the prison-industrial complex is criticized by many activists, scholars, and advocacy groups for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to incentive for incarceration, mass incarceration, inequity and racial bias, lack of rehabilitation, human rights concerns, and so on.
ChatGPT concludes like this, “Efforts to address these concerns include advocating for criminal justice reforms, reducing mandatory minimum sentences, improving rehabilitation programs, and reassessing the role of private companies in the prison system.”
- PIC, Memphis, and Shelby County, TN
We have a fundamental question about, to, and for Mr. Strickland about his policies on crime. He can answer or make his comment when he is ready to.
Question: Is Jim Strickland, Mayor of Memphis, one of those politicians who have been suspected to support such policies that can lead to increased incarceration rates or longer sentences, which can further the growth of the prison system in Shelby County, TN?
We ask another question to ourselves. Why is the prison industrial complex a problem?
We present this explanation instead. Justice Education Project explains, “Private prisons make more profit with more inmates, so instead of working with the goal of rehabilitating people and returning them to society, they work with the goal of keeping as many inmates incarcerated for as long as possible. This then contributes to the cycle of over-policing and longer sentences.”
Justice Education Project concludes, “The Prison Industrial Complex exploits incarcerated people on a daily basis. Private prisons not only make a profit just from holding incarcerated people, but can also force those people to partake in prison labor due to a loophole in the 13th Amendment. Our criminal justice system is riddled with injustice, but the PIC creates and upholds some of the most inhumane and unjust systems.”
Whenever we see the face of Mr. Strickland in the television regardless of whether you think his face is handsome or not, or even ugly, it is suspected that the “IMAGE” of PIC is overlapped or superimposed with his face.
As the Times pointed out in another editorial, in order to respond the local crime in Memphis and Shelby County, the COMPREHENSIVE COUNTERMEASURES are necessary and the INCLUSIVE SOLUTIONS should be suggested.
Just only trying to send more people into prison cannot solve the various social problems in Memphis and Shelby County in terms of “fighting against crime” or “getting tough on crime.”
In order to treat or cure diseases on human body, you need to cure the cause, not the symptom. That is the fundamental difference between ‘charlatans or quack doctors’ and ‘excellent or noted doctors.’
It seems that Mr. Strickland has been thinking of or talking about such symptoms during the last 7 or 8 years. But the good news is that a new mayor will be elected on this coming October, 2023. It is really a good news.
Published: July 26, 2023
The Memphis Times
www.memphistimes.org
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