The prison industrial complex is a term we use to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems.
There are many ways this power is collected and maintained through the prison-industrial complex, including creating mass media images that keep alive stereotypes of people of color, poor people, queer people, immigrants, youth, and other oppressed communities as criminal, delinquent, or deviant.
This power is also maintained by earning profits for private companies that deal with prisons and police forces; helping earn political gains for “tough on crime” politicians; increasing the influence of prison guard and police unions; and eliminating social and political dissent by oppressed communities that make demands for self-determination in the US.
If mass media images are a problem then why do these groups not join Trump saying MSM is problematic and untrustworthy?
For profit prisons are more efficient, because the government can’t run anything without substantial cost. So privatizing prisons saves costs.
Perhaps take a look at Norway's system.
The reason we DON'T do that is because state prisons are glorified slave rackets. The very existence of for-profit prisons is an obscenity that will be seen as being as barbaric as slavery in the long run.
For profit prisons are more cost effective than government run prisons. We are a capitalist society, people seek profit here, including the entirety of the country.
And most people don't "seek profit" here in their day to day lives. That's zero-sum idiocy.
And the second part, I’m guessing most people don’t work then?