I think everyone believes we should have prisons, the issue is whether they should be run by the state as they were in the past or if they should be for profit businesses which has come into fashion over the last decade or so. Once profit entered into the equation, we've seen that industry lobby for harsher sentences, more laws, and even bribe judges just to lock more people up and collect more tax dollars to do it.
What I am getting at is how would the system be fixed though...
We had too many people locked up to afford to take care of them all without the people outside the prisons getting pissed at having to take care of all the prisoners better than the people at home might be getting taken care of...
So they privatized said prisons, so now the tax payers pay less, but they put more people in prison so the companies running the prisons can make more money, but I don't see how it is really any worse than what was happening before...
Oh My God! I just figured out the answer...
Walmart
Walmart is the answer...
Walmart has low prices because they get their stuff made in countries that allow lower wages and production costs, yes?...
What if walmart started setting up factories in US prisons and paying the prisoners a ridiculously low wage, then walmart has to spend so much money they make from the merchandise sold that they spend some back to upkeep the prison..
Ummm we have a prison near where we live that makes pantyhose in a factory inside of the prison...the prisoners work there for some couple of dollars a day, not a normal wage, and then this plant sells the pantyhose and then uses the money to help the prison and to keep the company going...
That is good thinking in a way. the prisoners have something to do. they have a job they have to go to, and a way they have to act while at that job...they are less likely to get up to shennanigans because they have something to do with their time besides stabbing people and starting fights.
You have to have good behavior to work in the factory, and a little money is better than no money in jail...Not to mention it gives you a chance to mingle with people in a more relaxed and normal setting...
I should write a letter.