The effects of prisons on rural America have been understudied, leaving untouched various misconceptions of the "prison town." Forty years ago most, small towns protested the siting of prisons, incinerators, and other public works projects that city planners labeled LULU's (Locally Undesirable Land Uses). Around the mid-1980s, this trend shifted drastically, as many small rural towns took to campaigning actively to win the placement of a prison. The purpose of this study is to examine the causes of this shift and to document the subsequent effects that prisons have on small towns of the American hinterland, including the political, social, and cultural ramification of their presence and the role that rural towns dependent on continued prison growth play in facilitating the further expansion of the criminal justice system. The prison town provides a lens through which to understand why the U.S. has more than two million people held captive in over 1,660 correctional facilities and shed light on the different purposes of social control and new conceptions of punishment.