Journal of Systems Thinking · Volume 2, Issue 1 · 2022-05-11
Mapping the Prison Industrial Complex
A Case Study Using the Agent Based Approach (ABA)
Ronnie Schinker
https://doi.org/10.54120/jost.2025-0072rs
Abstract
In this paper, the Agent Based Approach (ABA) is used to map and analyze the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) in America. Using this approach, it is determined that the PIC is exceptionally well designed and good at its purpose of imprisoning an excessive number of people, exploiting their labor, and falling far short of anything resembling rehabilitation or the prevention of future crime. There are five salient agents in this system: those who are incarcerated, the DOJ, politicians, private prisons, and companies that profit off of prison labor. These agents each follow their own set of simple rules, which leads to the emergent behavior seen in the system. Based on these factors, the recommendations are made for those incarcerated to realize their collective power, for politicians to mandate the dignity of prisoners be respected through paying them a living wage for their work, and for the DOJ to create a new metric of success while also ending its relationship with private prisons. These recommendations are all consistent with a recommendations rubric, which has been explicated below.
© 2022 Journal of Systems Thinking (JoST) · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
