If we are truly to abolish police and prisons, we must understand the systems we wish to destroy. This report offers a blueprint for the constantly changing prison industry. Each chapter shares the origin story of privatization for that sector, how much money is in it for the corporations involved, the methods they use to extract resources from public coffers and communities, which corporations are most active, and the harm they cause people, families, and communities. Each chapter also includes powerful first-person narratives that are critical to understanding the impact privatization has had on people. The goal of The Prison Industry: How It Started, How It Works, How It Harms is to serve as a tool in the dismantling of the prison industry.