Private Prisons Profits

I am observing that many prisons in the US are run privately by corporations for the sake of making a profit. The incarcerated people in such establishments are often given shorter sentences if they agree to perform manual labor for little to no pay. Even if the prisons are getting subsidies which make them profitable, I suspect the owners consider it to be an asset more than a liability.

Sounds like incarceration is a profitable business to me...

The prison needs to make money.

You won't be able to do this if the prison are privately run, they need their profits!

Aren't some prisons for-profit?

Private prisons create a perverse incentive to lock people up. Follow the money.

the only issue is prisons in the US are frequently for-profit enterprises, so there's an even more perverse incentive - govco imprisons people, private prison makes money from the government, then bills the incarcerated, private prison has money to lobby for law changes that make more people "criminals" that need to be incarcerated - it's basically the same thing except now there's a bunch of fat middlemen.awesome.this is justice!

You realize that most prisons are privately owned and actively lobby for excuses to imprison people, right?

There is money to be made running private prisons - the fact is that there will without a doubt be a very strong pro-incarceration lobby in the US that will be highly successful at pushing an agenda which profits them.

@metrix many prisons are run by for-profit companies. It costs the taxpayers a lot, but there is profit to be made, and some elected officials benefit at least indirectly. edit: awkward wording