Lest anyone believe that only Republicans do this, you should know that the two judges in the Kids for Cash scandal (Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella) were Democrats.
And several blue states (Hawaii, New Mexico, Vermont, Colorado ) hold many prisoners in private prisons. Others used to.
There's more involved here than "Republicans are bad people".
My memory is that after the success of the Reagan presidency, the Democratic Party (in an effort to regain power) embraced a lot of the free trade, privatization, and tough on crime ideas that had been home in the Republican Party. See the Clinton administration. So here we are.
And several blue states (Hawaii, New Mexico, Vermont, Colorado ) hold many prisoners in private prisons. Others used to.
There's more involved here than "Republicans are bad people".