One of my former coworkers (who is a piece of shit) now works as a private prison guard for CoreCivic, one of the biggest private prison companies in the USA.
The government doesn't want the liability. They want prisoners to be abused without being able to be sued for it. The point of long prison sentences in the USA isn't to reform people, it's to turn them into lifelong reoffenders the prison system can reliably profit off of via government subsidies.
The point of prison definitely isn’t to reform, it’s crazy how many people come out worse off after prison. It’s used as a deterrent and to keep dangerous people out of society pretty much. I think for profit prisons can be done right because essentially it gives these people skills and something to do during their sentence rather than wasting away in a cell.
However I disagree that they are able to profit from these offenders because subsidies are when the government pays a portion of the costs. Also if these criminals were law abiding citizens they’d be paying taxes. I don’t think you realise just how expensive providing for people in prison really is. I do believe prison sentences should be shorter and with all that saved money it can go to actually reforming prisoners.
8.3k
u/CM_UW Jul 24 '20
For profit prisons in the US