[BinaryIdiot]

> The whole "private prisons cause incarceration" shtick is the same as "umbrella sales cause rain." No, rain came first, umbrella companies came after as a way to profit from rain.

You're right and wrong at the same time :)

The first time someone goes to prison is certainly not the private prison's fault (at least not directly; if they have family constantly in prison that can certainly harm and even guide someone to crime). The problem comes with repeat incarcerations. The private prison is incentivized to have people released with little to no help / guidance and the path of least resistance is returning to crime.

Yes private prisons are not 100% to blame for someone returning to crime. But we have shown through many rehabilitation problems that a large majority of prisoners can return and become productive. But when you're optimizing for the most amount of money you can get (which is currently head count for private prisons) you have zero incentive to pay for programs to help rehabilitate prisoners.

[kazagistar]

Public prisons aren't exactly incentivized to keep repeat incarceration low either. Is there evidence that rehabilitation is worse in private prisons?

[BinaryIdiot]

> Is there evidence that rehabilitation is worse in private prisons?

I could have sworn there was but I'm having a hard time finding a reliable source (just plenty of blogs and anecdotes) so I could be wrong. At least it makes sense to me, logically, but I have no idea if that's the real case.

[wyaeld]

Strawman analogy. There is a key difference

Umbrellas's can't lobby or pay politicians for more rain.