If it is penitence and rehabilitation, this makes no sense.
If it simply to incarcerate people for a while to make their lives difficult and make them not want to reoffend, this makes the wardens’ and guards’ life more difficult.
I suppose if the objective is to demonstrate righteous wrath and judgement then this is a good idea. However such demonstration is not likely to make society safer.
One thing I've noticed about ex-cons I've actually come in contact with is the people who are least afraid of going to prison are the people who've been there.
The guards don't give a crap about you, and you're bored out of your mind. You end up pacing endlessly.
Just to add, that’s 3 days solitary for not even being convicted of shoplifting. The charge was dropped for other reasons.
Plus, life for an ex-con is pretty hard on the outside.
There are other funds to be extracted of course, including exorbitant phone calls, "snack kits" and the like but that money goes to private corporations, not to the state (and to the kind of political donations that lead to the "three strikes" laws in California).
I don't believe incarceration for labor is much of an arrest motivator any more. I think the primary motivation in the US is some sort of punitive cruelty.
Historically the point of incarceration has changed with fashion (and technology of course).
Regardless of that: if the goal is simply to get these people out of circulation, anything that makes that process easier / cheaper is presumably worth it. This change goes the other way.