Even the non-private prisons are a source of profit. This is something that's often overlooked. The whole industry is corrupt. The prison lobby is like the 2nd or 3rd largest lobbying group in the US, it's ridiculous. They advocate for harsher laws so they have more prisoners, because their federal funding is based on the number of prisoners they have. Which is why so many prisons are overcrowded, because it's profitable. 1 out of 100 Americans is locked in a concrete box right now because of all this... it's a genuine crime against humanity