The Private Prison Video Game

by Matt Kelley · 2009-01-21 05:06:00 UTC
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Via Prison Photography via BLDGBLOG comes this head-scratcher: Prison Tycoon 4: Supermax - the video game that challenges you to "Build a profitable privately run prison from the ground up...Grow your facility to SuperMax capabilities, housing the most dangerous and diabolical criminals on earth – all for the bottom line." What?

I have to admit that as a nerdy 13-year-old I played a stock market trading simulation game on my family's computer. Looking back, I wonder if that game teaches kids about real-life financial skills or to be greedy. But at least there could be some value. A private prison? Who would want to spend free time building an elaborate cage, allowing gang wars, drugs and racial violence to fester in an attempt to earn more money? This is the fourth version of the game, so apparently someone is playing it.

I guess there's a video game version of nearly everything one can imagine. But the existence of this game (in four versions) highlights the disturbing prevalence of prisons in our society. This game takes for granted that prisons are everywhere and that they are simply a tool for profit. That's a sad place to be.

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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