Just because jobs are outsourced & places of work are privatized does not mean that they're making a profit. It could be that the owners (local, state & federal governments in the case of prisons-in the US) are just paying more for something they no longer feel or want to do. Therefore it could be costing the tax payer a lot more money but who cares. It then becomes profitable to those that do want to run the prisons for the possible profits that can be made. So does liability fall on the heads of the private companies running the prisons or upon the penal system responsible which should be overseeing them in the first place? Kind of like Abu Giraud & Guantanamo. Who's minding the store?

As to the overcrowding & the high numbers of inmates, for one the desire to rehabilitate is missing & there's always been a great push to punish & remove the potential undesirables from the general population. The rate of repeat offenders is very high who really cares? Of those convicted of drug related crimes, very few get any drug treatment. If one is convicted of a drug crime they usually can find some sort of treatment but unless it's a drug conviction the rest are out of luck, like the person who gets convicted of stealing, even if it's to support their habit. It cost money to educate & rehabilate & that's not an option our prison system cares about, it doesn't care if we can get the convict to become a contributing member of society after release, they are set up to fail upon release. How hard & how cheap would it be to teach a trade or a skill? So in the end we house more criminals & in the long run it costs far more. The prison system in the US, IMHO, has long been a holding camp for minority & poor peoples cheap labor, an avenue for oppressment, a threat to be held over the heads of the unfortunate as a way to 'tow the line'. The southern system was up until recently (the 60's) a continuation of the older plantation & slave systems & extremely profitable for the whole of the south eastern part of this nations economy.
The set up starts with an arrest, there's the beginning of the process that separates the rich, the well educated, the well connected & the powerful. One gets a high priced lawyer, bail, gets to grease the ways & rub elbows with those that have an influence upon their future & they get to toss around their money, spread their wealth, influence, power & good will & then make attractable bargains. The other gets a public defender that will toss them to the wolves while they sit unable to do anything on their own & on their own behalf & will settle for the worst just to receive what they already know will be the best they can expect from a system that's stacked against them, they have nothing to barter or bargain with & for. Just look at the deals lately that have been pasted on to corporate robber barons. They're getting pretty good deals for committing such high crimes against so many people. Where if you or I were convicted of something far less we'd be doing far more time for our lesser offence. The military deals the same justice. A few years for murder in another land & only the lowly get brought to trial & fed to the dogs while those that would give an order are not even spoken with.

And it doesn't stop there. Why does a poor or minority suspected criminal get such disrespect & ill treatment when a corporate raider like Ken Lay gets better. I would prefer to see Ken Lay dragged out of his high rise office, cuffed & shackled, publicly ridiculed without a chance of bond or bail (didn't he have more money & means to be considered a flight risk than most), have his assets frozen & told that he can be represented by a public defender. See what then happens to those folks when they equal treatment.   

I have nothing to say about concentration camps, though I'm surprised that the government didn't repeat the tragic mistakes that the showed towards Japanese during WWII. Opps, they weren't that far off with there treatment towards Moslems, Arabs & other mid easterners after 9/11.

Barry