For the first time in history more than one in every 100 adults in America are in jail or prison—a fact that significantly impacts state budgets without delivering a clear return on public safety
Not only does this prison-industrial complex not make things safer, the United States also has by far the highest incarceration rate in the world.
Full report (PDF)
Having read way too much scifi over the years, I often wonder what would happen if the system were to break down. If the economy were to collapse, for example, and all funding cut off.
Chaos theory posits they would not remain hungry, nor caged.