Prisoners also cost a ridiculous amount of public funds -I’ve seen numbers in the $100k-$150k/year range-. Prison work contributes to sentence reduction and contributes to their cost of imprisonment.
> Prisoners also cost a ridiculous amount of public funds
That's the point. Imprisoning people should be expensive so that it is used judiciously as a punishment.
Other countries have done very well at ensuring that former prisoners are turned into productive members of society. So the USA can accomplish the same.
> Imprisoning people should be expensive so that it is used judiciously as a punishment.
It shouldn't be used as a punishment at all. It makes sense only in cases where a convicted criminal represents a serious threat to other members of society which can only be mitigated through isolation—in which case the isolation should continue until there is no longer a threat. In all other situations we should be able to come up with more immediate and effective forms of punishment; ideally ones with an element of restitution for the victims.
(Also: If there are no victims seeking restitution then there shouldn't be a conviction in the first place, much less punishment.)
Other countries also have universal healthcare, free tertiary education and all sorts of things you would expect from a developed country.
I've come to the conclusion that the US is just a rich country with a huge military industrial complex that masquerades as a developed country while doing all the things it denigrates poorer countries for.
So while the USA can definitely afford to be a developed country I wouldn't hold your breath.
That high cost is bureaucratic bloat which ultimately gets funneled into the pockets of the wealthy and powerful who make decisions against the wellbeing of the poor, contributing to the perrenial cycle of incarceration.
Some people definitely deserve to be forced to pay for what they've done. But if a man is born into a decaying and violent environment, and he commits crimes, keeping with the norm of his peers, why should all the guilt be put upon him? I say state corruption, or mismanagement, is guilty for much crime.
It's a complicated system. The label "criminal" tends to be a thought-terminating classification that prevents further analysis and assessment of what causes criminality.
I’m not sure if this specific market is really that free, more likely they’d continue charging as much as they can get away with. Also relatively few prisons are private.
That's the point. Imprisoning people should be expensive so that it is used judiciously as a punishment.
Other countries have done very well at ensuring that former prisoners are turned into productive members of society. So the USA can accomplish the same.