Well said, all of it! The money thing confuses some people, because prisons are money sinks, very expensive to run. So, some folks might be saying, "What are you talking about? Prisons don't make money, they lose money."

That's true from the state or federal budget perspective, but it's not true at more local levels.

Here in Michigan, to illustrate a point, prison populations fell quite a lot in the past couple decades, tracking a general reduction in crime rates. Nevertheless, when state officials attempted to close unneeded or antiquated prisons, they met with enormous, organized political objection — from the communities where the prisons are located.

(As a side note, not closing certain prisons might actually have been good for inmates in terms of keeping overcrowding down, but that's not why people were fighting to keep them open.)

The communities where prisons were marked for closing fought the closings because community members see the prisons as important job sources, important money/power engines for the local area.

It took many years before Michigan was able to close even one unneeded prison, despite the fact that the prisons are a drain on Michigan's state budget. Even now, proposals are in place to close some prisons, and every step meets with fierce political resistance – notwithstanding political party. This isn't a Democratic or Republican thing. Democratic administrations have fared no better closing prisons than Republican administrations have.

This raises a question. If Michigan has more prison beds than necessary, is the prison pipeline working overtime to fill them?

Some people say that's exactly what's happening.