Abstract (Statement of Topic)

The U.S. dominates the prison industry, incarcerating twenty-five percent of the global prison population. Injustice in the U.S. criminal justice system extends beyond mass incarceration, but also includes the normalized violations of indigent defendants’ Sixth Amendment right to adequate counsel and the privatization of correctional facilities. This work analyzes several class action suits that have appeared at a myriad of courts to highlight the ineffective assistance of counsel that is often assigned to lower-income defendants. The podcast will also explore the rising phenomenon of for-profit prisons in the United States, concentrating upon these prisons’ internal functions and conditions. Overall, I argue that the U.S. criminal justice system operates under a neoliberal lens, fostering the economization of court procedures and the system of incarceration. Relying upon the role that politics serves in safeguarding the existence of private prisons, this podcast will conclude with tangible solutions that can help alleviate some of the consequences that result from the economization of the criminal justice system.

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