Crime Down but Prison Population Exploding - Related to Privatization?

[NAO]

It is very odd indeed that although the crime rate is down, the prison population is steadily increasing. I was shocked to see HOW far the US was ahead of other nations in imprisoning people (see stats in excerpt below).

There has been a huge trend in the US to privatize the prison system. It has become a major growth industry with very high profitability. I am starting to strongly suspect that there is a correlation here.

The privatization of the prison system is just another way that wealth is transfered from working people to the "ownership class". Our work is taxed, and then they money is payed to private companies to incarcerate "undesirables".

U.S. Prison Population, World's Highest, Up Again
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=8274699

excerpt

"The United States has incarcerated 726 people per 100,000 of its population, seven to 10 times as many as most other democracies. The rate for England is 142 per 100,000, for France 91 and for Japan 58..."

"According to the Justice Department, violent crime in the United States fell by over 33 percent from 1994 to 2003 and property crimes fell by 23 percent."