Take The Profit Out Of Prisons

Prisons for profit are lobbying Congress for new business. America now has five times as many prisoners per capita as other countries. Taxpayer dollars are being wasted on oversentencing. We can get by more cheaply. And more justly.

The idea of taking the profit out of imprisonment should be popular with a wide part of the electorate. It could be a good horse for a candidate to ride in the upcoming election. Both left and right could find reasons for supporting it.

So - Take The Profit Out Of Prisons.


Successful businesses need to return a slightly larger profit every year. If the business is a government contractor, success requires working ever-larger contracts, or making the current contracts ever-larger. Perhaps jobbing out the work of government to business has caused the tax increases and rise in the 'size' of government that conservatives rant about? So one would think, if one thought.

Would government have grown to such a monster if its service providers didn't need to show a bigger profit every year?