Text Box: national policy issues. They are an avenue of company access to national policy formation and membership results in significant advantages to the companies involved. Robert J. Lilly, in his 1993 article, “The Corrections-Commercial Complex”, uses the concept of subgovernmental policy-making to describe the working alliance between federal agencies, for-profit corporations and professional organizations. This closed network of participants operates together to control policy making and has four key characteristics: 1) Participants share a close working relationship which stabilizes over time and is dependent on a steady exchange of information, access, influence, personnel and money. 2) Each subgovernment displays an overlap between societal interests and the particular government bureaucracy involved. The ties between industry and the government are reinforced by the exchange of personnel. 3) Subgovernments maintain a low profile, operating outside of public awareness 4) A subgovernment takes on the quality of permanence within the given policy area. Partisan politics does little to disturb the relatively autonomous arrangement. Emergence & Growth A number of issues have converged to enable the emergence and growth of a corrections-commercial complex. McDonald (1990) suggested that interest in privatized corrections services has been stimulated by facility overcrowding and the need for immediate cell space, tougher penal policies, and the use of tough on crime policies for political gain or advantage. Overcrowding of penal institutions was not the only economic incentive for engaging the private sector in the criminal justice industry. The projected cost savings of private sector provision of services was politically attractive. Given the lack of dramatically increasing crime rates during the time of rapidly expanding prison populations, the monetary concerns generated by facility overcrowding were merely the most visible concerns. Various changes in sentencing practices have resulted in the incarceration of a rapidly growing number of people. The most popular measures among politicians have been the “three strikes” and “career criminal” laws. Although it is highly improbable that the average citizen is aware of the wide range of “crimes” to which these laws are applied, limiting their application would also limit Text Box: THE COMMERCIALIZATION OF JUSTICE: Public Good or Private Greed? Text Box: Marlyce Nuzum Eastern Michigan University Largely without notice or fanfare, a multi-billion dollar per year criminal justice industry has emerged -- an industry with local, state, national and international implications. However, the effect of privatizing and commercializing justice has received limited attention. Increasingly, criminal justice is about commerce and profit, with policy being driven by business, political and private interests. To continue ignoring the economic context in which criminal justice occurs and the corresponding policy implications is politically naive and socially irresponsible. There is strong evidence to support the existence of a corrections-commercial complex similar to the military-industrial complex President Eisenhower spoke of in 1961. He used this term to describe a relationship between the Federal bureaucracy, key members of Congress and private industrial interests. Eisenhower warned that this elite group had the power to determine national defense policy free from public scrutiny with far-reaching economic, political and social consequences (Adams, 1982). The arrangement depicted by the military-industrial complex is also referred to as an iron triangle or a subgovenment. The sides of the triangle protect the participants from external influence, regulation and public accountability. An exchange of personnel links the Executive and industry sides of the triangle and creates a closed network of shared, homogeneous ideas in the particular policy area. The potential conflicts of interest created by this arrangement can affect prices, supplies and free-market competition. The relationships in this closed network are reinforced by corporate contributions to political action committees (PACs) as well as membership in trade associations and governmental advocacy committees. PACs provide political education for corporate managers, supervisors and employees as well as a guide for lobbying efforts. Contributions to PACs strengthen the relationship between the industrial and Congressional sides of the iron triangle. Trade associations maintain regular working groups of corporate representatives who serve on Federal advisory committees. The trade associations are a critical link between industry and government. Advisory committees, composed of private sector and government representatives, provide advice on Text Box: Critical Criminologist Text Box: Volume 8 #3 Newsletter of ASC’s Division on Critical Criminology Text Box: Summer, 1998 THE