Prison Education Reduces Recidivism by Over 40 Percent. Why Aren’t We Funding More of It?

[djean111]

8. The short answer is that those prisons are meant to be kept at an agreed-upon occupancy.

Most private prison contracts even have a clause that says if the municipality (or whatever) does not provide them with enough head count, the municipality will pay the difference - if the private prison is guaranteed an amount per head, basing that on, say, 95% occupancy, and the municipality only provides enough prisoners to give them 85% occupancy, the municipality must pay the private prison as much as they would have if the occupancy rate was met.

"Reduced recidivism" is no longer the goal, profit is the goal. This is why there is such push-back against ending the war on drugs or marijuana legalization. This is why illegal immigrants are shunted into prisons immediately, if possible.
Law enforcement is no longer a service, it is a business.