This NY Times article, on a proposed prison closing in Pontiac, Illinois, hits on just how hard it is to shift away from reliance on prisons. In towns where prisons supply a big enough proportion of jobs, the entire town's working class is ruined if the state closes one. In other words, once you have built prison infrastructure, you find yourself in a catch-22: fuck over the working class by closing it, or keep fucking over those deep in poverty by keeping it open (and thus maintaining a demand for "supply").
There's no good solution here. But there is an even stronger imperative to actively resist the building of any new prisons. For more information, or to get involved, visit the Prison Moratorium Project (California is one of the biggest fronts on this issue right now.)
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