system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Please explain to me how prisons are allowed to be privatized, and what their purpose is compared to public (as in, are they better for prisoners, better for the state, etc?)
gpt
Prisons are allowed to be privitized because local and state governments passes laws saying they were allowed to be privitized.

The purpose was an effort to reduce the  incredibly high cost of prisons (and lots of corruption by people who have financial gain from it--which from any perspective or stance on the situation cannot be ignored).  It hasn't really reduced costs, conditions are questionable, but people (private prison companies) are making shit tons of money off of it from the government.