Dr. Byron Price is a black scholar with a mission. His book, 'Merchandizing Prisoners' opens the door for a discussion on how the African American community is being financially pillaged by the prison industry. You may not know this, but private corporations earn money from inmate incarceration and have a direct financial incentive to house more. This is a problem, since unfocused profit maximization does not leave much room for prisoner rehabilitation. Dr. Price is one of the leading scholars in America, and he has taken it upon himself to help solve this problem.

1) What is your name and what do you do for a living?

Byron E. Price, associate professor, political science department, and interim director, Barbara Jordan Institute for Policy Research

2) Tell us about your book? What does it teach us?

According to National Union of Public and General Employees, "This book examines the steady growth of private, for-profit prison firms and the correctional-commercial complex that has developed tangentially with the private prison industry." It also details the strange bedfellows that have been brought together to expand this industry.

I underscore how these for-profit private prison companies have gone public and are trading on the stock exchanges and the inimical impact of prisons being publicly traded. The book debunks many of the claims as to why states seek prison privatization and demonstrates that incarceration is the new form of slavery. ...This work sets the record straight about the decision to privatize state prisons, revealing the political bias that often drives these policy choices.

3) Why do so many black men end up in prison?

The collateral consequences of a felony conviction makes it impossible for African American males to reintegrate into society. A felony conviction for drugs makes one ineligible for financial aid, living in public housing, receiving welfare benefits, obtaining a vocational licenses, such as a barber's license. Social-control strategies are employed to maintain the status quo. Over-policing of the African American community and the criminalization of black males all lead to the disproportionate incarceration of black males. Black males are more likely to be expelled from school, tracked, labeled, placed in special education, be punished for adolescent behavior and criminalized for adolescent behavior. Thus, there is an expectation that black males will end up in prisons, and these expectations are internalized by many black youth. It ends up as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

4) Is there money being made by incarcerating prison inmates? If so, how is it being made and who is earning it?

Corporations such as Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the Geo Group (formerly Wakenhut), Avalon Correctional Services, Cornell Companies and Industry Property Management. CCA has a $2 billion market cap, followed by the Geo Group with a $922 million market cap. The money is made by contracting out the inmates' labor to Fortune 500 companies and, in some cases, they compete for public works contracts. CCA and the others are making money, and their stock trades on the stock exchange. Telecommunications industries pay prisons to put pay phones in prisons. Pay phones in prisons make $15,000 a day. Transportation companies and all sorts of cottage industries develop around the prison industry. UNICOR, or Federal Prison Industries, created by Congress, was one of the first prison industries established to exploit inmate labor. States also pay a per diem per inmate to private prison corporations.

5) Are the prisons being cooperative in reducing the abuse and sexual assault of prison inmates?

Prison rape is encouraged by guards as a form of punishment. They are not very cooperative when it comes to ameliorating prison rape. The increasing HIV infection rate of heterosexual black females can be directly traced to the prison population. It has also placed black women at a disadvantage, because it has reduced the number of marriageable black men and has undermined black women's ability to negotiate better mates. Many end up with men from prison and end up getting infected by these men.

6) Are there any efforts that have been successful at confronting the strange financial incentives of the prison system?

Not at the level they need to be. We should lead a divestiture campaign of private prisons, and we should campaign to abolish private prisons.

7) What do you think are the solutions to the problems cited in your book?

Our community should launch a campaign to get rid of the laws in place that continue to punish black males long after that have paid their debt to society. For example, the inability to get financial aid. We should ban the question on employment applications that ask, "Have you been convicted of a felony?" We should take control of our children's education -- we need to get our children around people who love them. Abolish gangster rap and reduce the influence of hip-hop because it fosters a thug culture and cultivates misogyny and thuggery. Black men should play a more active role in their children's lives. We should also create employment opportunities for our community.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Boyce Watkins, finance professor at Syracuse University. To have Dr. Boyce's commentary delivered directly to your e-mail, please click here.