U.S. prison system is a $80 billion industry that impacts nearly 2 million incarcerated individuals.
Bianca Tylek is no stranger to Wall Street. She started her career there before pivoting to law and eventually founding the national nonprofit Worth Rises. But in her new book, The Prison Industry: How It Works and Who Profits (The New Press, April 8), Tylek draws on that Wall Street experience, not to defend the economy—but to expose its role in sustaining one of America’s most devastating and enduring institutions: mass incarceration.
“I developed a skillset to build companies that I now use to dismantle them,” Tylek told the Vanguard in a recent interview.
That mission—to dismantle the prison industry—is the beating heart of her book, which pulls back the curtain on how corporations, financial institutions, and government partners profit from human caging.
The U.S. prison system is a behemoth, worth over $80 billion annually and impacting nearly 2 million incarcerated individuals. According to Tylek, this industry doesn’t just profit from locking people up—it thrives on it.
“The prison industry bleeds wealth out of communities—especially Black, brown, and low-income communities—and extracts it for private gain,” she said.
From private prisons to telecom providers, food service companies to healthcare contractors, the carceral system has evolved into a full-fledged marketplace where every interaction is monetized. Tylek’s book offers a sweeping yet meticulously detailed examination of the many sectors that make up this industry. Each chapter focuses on one aspect of the prison economy—from phone call fees to medical neglect—paired with real-life stories of those harmed by it.
Too often, conversations about the prison industrial complex begin and end with private prisons like GEO Group and CoreCivic. But as Tylek emphasized, these companies are only the tip of the iceberg.
“Private prisons represent about $5 billion of an $80 billion industry. They’re one chapter out of twelve in this book,” she explained.
“The goal is to make it illegal—or at least untenable—for anyone to profit off incarceration.” – Bianca Tylek
The rest spans far more pervasive—and insidious—players: telecommunications giants charging families exorbitant rates for a 15-minute call, commissary providers inflating prices for basic goods, and healthcare companies cutting corners with deadly consequences.
In many cases, people behind bars earn as little as 14 cents an hour, leaving families to shoulder the financial burden.
“One in three families with an incarcerated loved one goes into debt just trying to stay connected,” Tylek said. “It’s an endless cycle of extraction.”
One of the most important sections of The Prison Industry traces the money trail to private equity firms and institutional investors.
Tylek names names: H.I.G. Capital, American Securities, and Platinum Equity—all of which own or control companies that dominate prison telecom, healthcare, and commissary services.
“These are not niche players,” Tylek said. “These are major financial firms using people’s incarceration as a revenue stream.”
Private equity firms, by design, are structured to maximize short-term profit—often at the expense of public oversight. That’s especially dangerous when applied to essential services like medical care or food access behind bars.
“The prison industry bleeds wealth out of communities—especially Black, brown, and low-income communities—and extracts it for private gain.” – Bianca Tylek
“We’ve seen cases of hundreds of lawsuits for medical malpractice or wrongful death. These companies take public money to provide a service and then fail to deliver,” she said.
In one particularly striking anecdote, Tylek recalled organizing a successful campaign to push a public school employee pension fund to divest from Platinum Equity. A cafeteria worker had written a viral op-ed: “I don’t want my retirement funded off the backs of the children I serve.” That level of public pressure, Tylek noted, can make a difference.
Tylek’s book is also timely. With the Trump administration preparing sweeping immigration enforcement policies, the prison industry stands to profit even more.
“This administration is seeking to massively expand immigration detention and electronic monitoring,” Tylek warned. “Companies like GEO Group are already projecting that millions of people could be swept into this system.”
The stakes are chilling. Projections suggest up to 18 million undocumented individuals could be subjected to electronic monitoring under a second Trump term. Detention beds are expected to quadruple. And the Department of Justice has signaled a renewed push for capital punishment, even in dubious federal cases like that of Lezmond Mitchell and Luigi Ferdinand.
“Trump’s allies in the prison industry are preparing for a gold rush,” Tylek said. “And they’re setting themselves up to profit at every stage—from arrest and detention to deportation and death.”
Still, Tylek isn’t all doom and gloom. Her book offers a roadmap for dismantling the system—from divestment campaigns and state-level regulations to public education and corporate accountability. “Even in this climate, there are opportunities at the local and state level,” she said.
For example, Worth Rises recently backed a bill in Connecticut that would strip business licenses from companies participating in the death penalty. Other victories include pressuring regulators to cap prison phone rates and exposing corrupt contracts between sheriffs and vendors.
“The goal is to make it illegal—or at least untenable—for anyone to profit off incarceration,” Tylek said. “And that starts with naming the problem and making it visible.”
“Private prisons represent about $5 billion of an $80 billion industry. They’re one chapter out of twelve in this book.” – Bianca Tylek
That’s what The Prison Industry ultimately accomplishes: it maps out the invisible architecture of incarceration and reveals the grotesque profits made from human suffering.
Importantly, the book also centers the voices of those directly impacted. Each chapter features personal stories from incarcerated people, their families, and even correctional staff. These narratives humanize a system that so often dehumanizes—and they bring the consequences of corporate greed into stark relief.
“We wanted to show that this isn’t just about policy or numbers. It’s about people,” Tylek said. “People who are exploited, abused, and too often forgotten.”
The Prison Industry is more than an exposé—it’s a call to action. In the tradition of Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow and Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s Golden Gulag, Tylek’s book is poised to reshape the national conversation on incarceration.
“Justice and profit are incompatible,” Tylek insists. “If we’re serious about ending mass incarceration, we have to confront the money that keeps it alive.”
As the threat of renewed mass incarceration intensifies, The Prison Industry arrives right on time. It’s a damning indictment of a system that profits from pain—and a powerful tool for those fighting to build something better.
To learn more about Bianca Tylek and the work of Worth Rises, visit www.worthrises.org.
The Prison Industry: How It Works and Who Profits is available now from The New Press.
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