Private prisons don't exist in many states and represent a very small fraction of people in prison. We lock up so many people because for many years that has be

Private prisons don't exist in many states and represent a very small fraction of people in prison. We lock up so many people because for many years that has been a popular thing to do, and people have affirmatively voted for it. I think those people are wrong, but let's not mislead ourselves about how this happened.