I am always utterly amazed by the level of incarceration in the US.
Here is one of the 'top' country in the world, whatever metric you use for stable western democracies, and yet, a huge proportion of its population is spending or has spent some time incarcerated.
Whatever explanation is given, it seems unfathomable that a democratic country could end-up with higher incarceration rates than the worse dictatorships.
It isn't only the incarceration rates that are problematic. For example the police can legally steal stuff/money - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kEpZWGgJks "civil forfeiture". Being on the poorer end of society leads to more adverse outcomes in the "justice" system. For people who have been incarcerated, getting back into society is hard since the system is not about rehabilitation. Recidivism rates are higher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recidivism
Or on a more personal note, how about a 79 year old man with the early stages of alzheimers and dementia put in prison, isolated, and denied a phone call, access to lawyers or even being able to let anyone know this has happened for 3 months? Innocent until proven guilty doesn't even apply, let alone basic justice.
Definitely sounds like a country where I'd rather not live.
A prison system built for maximizing profit can only fall into corruption. Rehabilitation, while being of the utmost importance to society, goes completely against the objectives of a business who would thrive on offenders that keep getting jailed.
Note that it is more than just maximizing profit. Prison guard unions are politically strong and they too campaign for more prisons and more occupants, because it means more jobs and union members.
Whatever explanation is given, it seems unfathomable that a democratic country could end-up with higher incarceration rates than the worse dictatorships.