This industry depends on feeding itself. For homicide, by comparison, the national average was barely six. You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to wonder about the connection between an exploding prison population and an industry that profits from incarceration. Morgan Reynolds, who directs criminal justice programmes at the National Centre for Policy Analysis, described his vision of the future for Hallinan. Hallinan thinks the conspiracy theory too crude.
Fear drives the whole machine.
All over the US, Hallinan encountered a common perception of soaring crime. Yet most people, particularly in prison-loving states like Texas, could not cite personal examples. Back then, the generalised fear bred a huge military arsenal. Now it breeds prisons. Affluent white Americans fear crime the most.