This is from Brave New Foundation, but their point here about the private prison business is larger than immigrants — the entire War on Drugs business feeds this industry as well. This video is 2 minutes, 20 seconds:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuGE1VxVsYo[/youtube]
The $72,000/year cost by these prisons to house a prisoner is on the high end, but here in Delaware, it costs $30K/year to house a prisoner. Compare that to: Cost of $20K per year to send someone to University of Delaware with room and board. Cost of public school primary and secondary education per student in Delaware is less than that. And the Tough on Crime People (send them all to jail!) are largely the same people complaining about the cost of education , how much teachers get paid, how the education system fails kids and is just generally screwed up.
That is likely because our priorities are really screwed up.