[ineedasername]

A good start to reform would be to stop making crime a profit center for corporations that provide prison and rehab services. Their interests are the lowest quality at the highest price, and they will lobby politicians towards that end even if it's not in the best interests of turning a criminal back into a productive member of society.

The government may tend to lack efficiency, but at least its lack of profit motive wouldn't completely taint the whole system.

[ultrastable]

true, although I think it's worth pointing out that private prisons aren't as big a driver of mass incarceration in the US as a lot of people think. the privatization of services like food or health within public prisons, or replacing mail or in-person visitation w/ extortionate electronic systems, is probably much more significant.

similarly most exploitative prison labor doesn't take the form of producing goods for private companies (like the Whole Foods cheese thing) but consists of using inmates to reducing staffing & other costs inside the prison, like making them work in the kitchens or laundry

edit: immigration detention is the notable exception - about 70% of immigration detainees are held in private prisons, compared to about 10% of prison inmates