I think for profit prisons are a small fraction of the carceral system. Most prisons are government run. Even in the case of private prisons what we need is to

I think for profit prisons are a small fraction of the carceral system. Most prisons are government run. Even in the case of private prisons what we need is to align incentives. We shouldn't be mainly paying per inmate, but rather give the private prison X% of the inmate's taxes after release and nothing if the inmate offends again. The idea is, we don't want to incentivize prisons to just hold people - that actually incentivizes the prisons to promote recidivism. We do want the prisons to impart job and life skills that will make the prisoner a productive and law abiding member of society after release.