I wasn't entirely dismissing that it was happening. I just assume it's more hyperbole than reality that the 'private prison industry' has much influence of criminal justice laws. But I see that that there are a few occasions where this too is also being realized as a negative incentive.

This just further adds to the larger, more potent, argument against them. That the typical benefits of privatizaton are largely non-existant in this scenario. I really don't see the value of privatizing such a sensitive and serious government responsibility. Simply because it's far from a true marketplace.

I doubt many libertarians are pushing for these prisons either. Even the Koch brothers were awarded by Obama for their justice reform work to reduce incarceration rates.

Removing people from being able to work, taking away kids fathers, hurting their long term employability, and sending them to a 'con-college' doesn't help society at all from a purely economic perspective. It should be the absolute last resort for the worst criminals instead of the standard practice even for non-violent crimes.

It sounds like it's more of the domain of big government republicans who love defence industry style privatization like the countless companies getting rich off of NSA contracts with marginal ROI and limited oversight.

The real underlying problem here is a tough-on-crime prison culture in the US. This should never be a potential 'growth' industry. This can only happen in the US due to their high incarceration rate which far outpaces other countries.

If you kill this obsession with harsh prison sentencing and yearly flood of new laws you'd also stop this industry from being an attractive space for investors to back lobbyists. Likewise killing private prisons seems like it would also help reduce this culture.