Selling ‘securityware’

Abstract

In this article, I examine how the marketing of penal commodities and the use of ‘security’ as a selling point has developed and proliferated over the past 50 years in the US corrections market. Using data obtained from a contextual analysis of display advertisements from the correctional trade periodical, Corrections Today and its predecessors, I trace the transformation of the major message modes of the sales pitches, from how the promoted products and/or services can benefit inmate moral and rehabilitative efforts to how they can enhance institutional security. I conclude by discussing the current state of marketing security in the penal realm, and how it appears to shape the nature and quality of institutional life, as well as its theoretical implications in terms of what this aspect of the penal enterprise might tell us about of the state of contemporary punishment.