Reply #18: Because many well-connected companies and individuals are [View All]

[tblue37]

making a lot of money in the "prison industrial complex" as a result of the privatization of prisons.

Those prisons are welcome in parts of the country that are depressed, because they also bring jobs, which reinforces the fact that a lot of people make money from imprisoning a lot of other people.

Those who own the companies make huge profits, while the people who work as guards and in other positions for the prisons also have jobs with benefits, which they would not have without the prisons.

Also, the War on Drugs, which is a major driver of prison population growth, enables police departments and other aspects of the criminal justice sysem to make a lot of money and become more powerful, so they, too, have a reason to want to charge a lot of people and keep as many as possible in prison.