system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How exactly do prisons make money by having more prisoners?

I keep seeing/hearing about for-profit prisons and people making comparisons to how it costs more to put someone through prison than college, but this goes against basic logic in my head that to house, feed, and clothe, bathe, etc. A person is more of a loss than a gain.

I've done cursory Google searches, but turn up mostly articles that are too jargony and beyond my current level of understanding..

Who is giving money to prisons and how/why are they getting profits? Any peripheral knowledge that can help me understand would be helpful too. Thank you!
gpt
They get paid by the state per prisoner. The more prisoners the more money they make.

> A person is more of a loss than a gain.

They're not. They get paid more to house that person that it costs to house them. If they didn't it would be completely pointless for a company to run a prison.