> Our government, on the other hand, should not be motivated this way. Rather, government should be motivated by the welfare of the entire population, and by re

> Our government, on the other hand, should not be motivated this way. Rather, government should be motivated by the welfare of the entire population, and by reducing all of the costs of crime or undesirable behavior. Except... it's not. That is literally what people are referring to when we talk about the prison-industrial complex. The government absolutely does have a profit motive (and it turns out, it's the same profit motive shared by private industry, just captured or executed by the state instead).