The phrase echoes President Eisenhower's warning about the military-industrial complex. It was popularized in the late 1990s by Angela Davis and the abolitionist group Critical Resistance, which held its first national conference in 1998. They argued that prison expansion was driven by politics and profit, not crime rates.
The complex includes private prison companies, but also much more: firms selling phone service, food, medical care and electronic monitoring; construction contractors; guard unions; and rural towns that depend on prison jobs. Prison populations also count toward the districts where prisons sit, which shifts political power.
The US holds nearly 2 million people in prisons, jails and other detention, according to the Prison Policy Initiative's 2025 count. Black people are incarcerated at much higher rates than white people. Abolitionists use the term to argue that reforms must challenge these interests, not just adjust them.