A long sociological tradition has examined how state coercion undergirds the “free market” for labor. In the contemporary prison, however, there are signs this relationship has been turned on its head. Whereas in the past, state coercion helped prisons generate profit for private markets, today market ideas are increasingly used within prisons to facilitate state control. I draw on an analysis of seven waves of the Survey of Inmates in State Correctional Facilities, as well as 61 interviews with state prison administrators, prison industry advocates, and formerly incarcerated people. Although the market for the products of prison labor has declined, and incarcerated people, on average, are working less than ever before, inequality in the distribution of work and rewards for this work has sharpened. This changing structure of prison labor is associated with a changing understanding of it. Prison administrators, and to some extent incarcerated people themselves, use market ideas to explain the new organization of prison labor and justify people’s places within it. This organization and these ideas solve managerial problems within the prison and are suggestive of parallels between prison and social welfare policy in the contemporary era.

中文翻译：

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从苦役到市场纪律：监狱工作的政治经济学，1974年至2022年

长期以来的社会学传统一直在研究国家强制如何巩固劳动力的“自由市场”。然而，在当代的监狱中，有迹象表明这种关系已经发生了逆转。过去，国家强制帮助监狱为私人市场创造利润，而如今，市场理念在监狱内越来越多地被用来促进国家控制。我对七波州立监狱囚犯调查以及对州立监狱管理人员、监狱行业倡导者和前被监禁者的 61 次访谈进行了分析。尽管监狱劳动产品的市场已经萎缩，而且被监禁者的平均工作量比以往任何时候都少，但工作分配和工作报酬的不平等却加剧了。监狱劳动结构的这种变化与其理解的变化有关。监狱管理人员，以及某种程度上的被监禁者本身，利用市场思想来解释监狱劳动的新组织，并证明人们在其中的地位是合理的。这个组织和这些想法解决了监狱内部的管理问题，并暗示了当代监狱和社会福利政策之间的相似之处。