There was a great quote by Chris Hayes that I saw that summed up my thoughts on the prison system.
Going to paraphrase: They took someone in the inner city that was worth nothing and found that if they put them in prison they could make 40,000 usd per year on them with food contracts, guard wages and government funding.
The current prison system needs to be reevaluated and not allowed to be a for profit business that has only a duty to the share holders.