While I won't touch the sugar claim, private prison companies tend to think of themselves as real estate investors. They try to get desperate rural governments to give them land for pennies on the dollar.

They make empirically false claims for what the local economic impact is going to be by being obtuse.

I know this because I was involved with meetings with one trying to move into my home town.

I got them to admit the first in public meeting but they punted on the second.

And if you think there's a direct connection between crimes and prison terms, you are just under informed.

There are lots of people in prison who have long paid for their crimes but are still there because they are victims of their time (Cash)

Keeping people in prison is incentivized for private prisons.