It's got a spectrum of those incarcerated that's perhaps skewed a bit more to one extreme than other states like Connecticut but that doesn't mean there aren't

It's got a spectrum of those incarcerated that's perhaps skewed a bit more to one extreme than other states like Connecticut but that doesn't mean there aren't a lot of people locked away for petty crimes. The worst is those who are otherwise good citizens but got busted for simple possession and are doing years of time. That costs the state hundreds of thousands of dollars, and after they're branded a felon, they'll probably "re-offend" given they have limited job opportunities. If you wanted to design a system to generate prisoners they're doing a great job, which given the for-profit prison system, is probably the idea.