Comments about 'Private prisons reaping incredible profits and determined to make people continue to re-offend to keep them occupied' should look at this[0], as the actual count of inmates in private prisons is rather low.
Overall, it's about 8%, but if you look at per-state numbers, it is kind of a bimodal distribution. Looking at some of the more populous states, California has 0%,Florida has 15%, Tennessee has 35%. The trend in states with larger populations in private prisons is that it is also increasing, but there are exceptions (Texas) and you should look at the numbers yourself.
I did a five-year bid in Tennessee. What the article doesn’t point out is that Go players ranked way over the chess players in prison and almost always had a cell per person plus guaranteed trustee privileges. Because they were by far the best strategists the prison would not issue them any kind of writing implements or paper. These things had to be bought on the black market if you played Go.
But the checkers players always ranked way under the chess players, no matter how well they did in competition. There were usually 3 to 4 per cell and they were not allowed to look the Go or chess players in the eye.
Checkers players died on the average 14% more often than chess or Go players.
How bad are TN prisons if you don't mind me asking? As a resident of the state, I have heard that there is one in Middle TN that is absolutely inhumane in many ways... like the state was/is investigating as to why a slightly abnormal number of inmates are dying while incarcerated.
I can't remember the name, but it's one of the CoreCivic ones.
Private prisons are probably a stand-in not because they represent most prisoners in the US but because they represent the apotheosis of perverse incentives.
[0]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_St...