The real reason we should end the use of private prisons is not the conventional one. The real reason is that justice should not be administered through the prism of profit… We mistrust arrangements that might lead actors in the system to stray from their duty to administer justice impartially.
The problem with the private prison is analogous. The companies that build and run private prisons have a financial interest in the continued growth of mass incarceration. That is why the two major players in this game—the Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO Group—invest heavily in lobbying for punitive criminal justice policies and make hefty contributions to political campaigns that will increase reliance on prisons.
