>I do wish that US prisons would decide whether they're in the business...

They have decided. They are in the business of BUSINESS -- it is a profitable system where they harvest their crop through a corrupt system of laws - even outright bribing judges to send them new meat (like the case with the juvenile judges back east -- http://boingboing.net/2009/02/02/judges-jailed-for-ta.html)

Honesty about their goals == PROFIT