[9x39]

>the private for-profit prison system

92% of the prison system is government-run, no need to exaggerate.

>conclude the US justice system and policing are designed for "high conviction rates, regardless of guilt or innocence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conviction_rate

You can see that's not a particularly useful metric to evaluate a legal system (and in the US, states, tribal, federal differ).

Americans ostensibly have the bill of rights in their favor, while Japan doesn't. Sure, you can't be indigent if you expect a vigorous defense from the state, but your odds are good if your case isn't hopeless, and many are - the incidence of plea deals typically reflects this.

[omnimus]

Prisons in US might be run by gov but private companies profit heavily on services provided to these facilities. Basically everything possible is outsourced - commissary, food, healthcare, labour…

Add that to highest incarceration rate in the world - around 600 people per 100k residents (japan for example is 40 per 100k).

You get what people call for-profit prison system. It's not some secret or controversial claim.

[9x39]

>Basically everything possible is outsourced - commissary, food, healthcare, labour…

That's as true at the DMV as it is for the DOD and BOP, isn't it? Even Japan's system buys goods from the private sector and hires people.

The stated purpose of the prison system(s) is to store people away from communities as part of the justice process until they can reenter society. The evidence of that is clear in the inmates held, something to the tune of 1-1.5m when you add up state and federal prisons. I think it's straightforward to explain a higher incarceration rate than Japan through a higher crime rate than Japan.

Incarcerations (using yours) - US is ~15 times higher US: 600/100k JP: 040/100k

Murder (2023 [1]) - US is ~25 times higher US: 5.76/100k JP: 0.23/100k

Yes, there are more crimes than homicide, but the US trends more criminal and more violent than JP. Our demographics and culture are different than JP.

>It's not some secret or controversial claim.

It's a claim without direct proof relying on inference where people will see what they want to see like a Rorschach test, similar to calling a conflict a 'war for oil' or the broader description of the military-industrial complex.

[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1374211/g7-country-homic...