A comparison of 3-year averages of percent of unemployed and rate of new prisoners from 1927 to 1978 demonstrates that the fluctuations in the trend of committing people to prison are intimately connected to the movements of the national economy. The heavy concentration of blacks in prison is thus not surprising, since the unemployment rate of black males is typically twice that of white males. Masses of young people are being sent to prison because of the economic pressures of a stagnant economy, and they are more likely to react against their oppression than older, more tractable inmates. There have been three major waves of prison disturbances in modern American penal history: 1929-30, 1952-55, and 1968-71. All of these prison uprisings occurred during periods of economic recession and immediately after periods of relative prosperity when both the rate of new prisoners received and total prisoner populations were relatively low and stable. In all three periods, the massive uprisings occurred when the prisons were beginning to fill up again. The last decade has seen the highest rates and fastest increase in mass incarceration in the Nation's history. This, in conjunction with the increasing concentration of blacks in the prisons and the ever increasing sensitivity of the prison system to the demands of monopoly capitalism ensures that the prison problem in America can only get worse. In the face of this problem, liberals have abandoned efforts at prison reform, while conservatives are faced with trying to accommodate huge prison populations while trying to hold down government spending on prisons and social services. At a minimum, only an effective job-creation program would help to break the pattern. Four notes are provided.