> despite them being a tiny fraction of prisons (8%) to start filling those 8% you have to over-fill the 92% of the government ones. Giving the guaranteed min

> despite them being a tiny fraction of prisons (8%) to start filling those 8% you have to over-fill the 92% of the government ones. Giving the guaranteed minimum vacancy clauses in the private prison contracts, state officials have to send people there, and they wouldn't look good doing that while having free space in state prisons, so they need to keep the state prisons overfilled.