ABSTRACT
The American criminal justice system is rife with contradictions. This chapter demonstrates that there is no shortage of evidence involving the ironies of imprisonment. It considers the case of Oklahoma prisoner Robert Brecheen, who slipped into a self-induced drug stupor. Facing a life-threatening situation, corrections officials rushed him to a nearby hospital where physicians pumped his stomach. Along with a critique of capital punishment, the chapter throws crucial light on a prison apparatus riddled with contradictions. As discussed, profiteering schemes subject non-violent offenders to unnecessary and costly incarceration. Rather than delivering financial dividends that could otherwise be used to improve society, such as educational and healthcare initiatives, efforts to capitalize on prisons merely add to the wealth of the corporate class. When one considers that the economic-punishment nexus is reinforced by a structural pursuit of reducing labor, the future appears dim since growing unemployment contributes to a correctional treadmill.
