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Re:Justice Department says it will end use of private prisons by justinlardinois on Thursday August 18, 2016 @01:14PM (#12314405)
I guess? I don't think that's why private prisons are wrong, though. Private prisons have an incentive to keep you incarcerated as long as possible, because that's how they make money. The government, on the other hand, has little incentive to keep you in prison; they'd rather you get back into society so you can start paying taxes again.
Re:Justice Department says it will end use of private prisons by slavik81 on Thursday August 18, 2016 @01:58PM (#12314830)
The government has many interests. Their goals are driven by politicians who need votes. The skyrocketing rate of imprisonment comes in large part from the public's seemingly insatiable demand for harsher sentences. The only things that voters seem to hate more are tax increases.
Re:Justice Department says it will end use of private prisons by justinlardinois on Thursday August 18, 2016 @07:51PM (#12317084)
Perhaps "government" was too broad of a term.

Inmates sometimes end up staying prison longer than their original sentence because of crimes they commit in prison. The point I was making is that a private prison warden has much more of an incentive to punish those crimes severely than a public one does.