It seems to me that whether public or private, prisons should have good, independent oversight. Pretending that the "profit motive" is the biggest issue overlooks the horrific abuses committed by guards in California's public prisons.
http://www.cjcj.org/uploads/cjcj/documents/the_undue_influen...
And IMHO is bizarrely inconsistent outrage.
Want to make a profit from supplying prisons? Activists see no problem with that!
Want to make a profit from hiring felons, who are cheaper due to having limited options? Activists give you the thumbs up!
Want to make a profit for your private corporation from building a public prison? AOK!
But run it for profit? No matter how much oversight or regulation is applied, it's somehow inherently evil.
It feels like a distraction.
* as in that's the political position I hold, I wasn't involved in any way with this initiative or attempting to take credit or provide insider perspective on it.
Reform is a step by step process, getting people used to the idea of thinking of rehabilitation and reintegration instead of the gut instinct to punish takes a lot of time and in the mean time address the worst abuses of the system. In the mean time make sure you're not setting up systems that will fight for their own survival and demand (in some cases by contractual obligations for the state to fill X number of best!) to be fed.
Hiring a felon should not be regarded as evil, either; just the opposite.
I don't see how it's bad faith to assume activists don't advocate full abolition of markets. If you want to take the position that all profit is evil (or at least is evil if it ever touches any part of the prison system), that just makes your position harder to defend.
Edit: Also, can I introduce you to this poster: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20955714