I'm sure the $45+ million spent lobbying congress had nothing to do with increasing private prisons 'clients' and keeping prohibition of cannabis. https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/28/...
/sarcasm
Their side of the story was that Pennsylvanian's children correction facilities were crap and he did not feel comfortable sending kids there. He organized a group of investors to pay for a new facility. The real estate developer who got the contract to build it paid the judge a "finders fee" for the referral. The Judges didn't report the money. As far as the harsh sentences the judge was doing that for years as an over reaction to the Columbine thing. It's an interesting doc suggest checking it out.