While this may or may not be true, the prison industrial complex is a massive, booming business.
Private “for profit” prison systems work because the government supplies prisoners, the tax payers pay for it, and, with contracts stipulating that a jail has to have a 90 percent occupancy rate over the term of the contract, the correctional facilities’ shareholders are the ultimate winners.
The more prisoners, the more profit for shareholders. Furthermore, over the past decade, three major private prison companies have spent $45 million on campaign donations and lobbyists to push legislation at the state and federal level.” Another report noted that- “… the private prison industry spent millions seeking to increase sentences and incarcerate more people….. in order to increase the industry’s profits”.
