This radio interview contains much material that is instructive in terms of societal devaluation. One claim made in the interview is that these prisons, many of them for-profit, exploit the labor of the prisoners. If accurate, this may remind us of similar exploitative practices which were common at many institutions. See for example these reports:
http://www.disabilitymuseum.org/dhm/lib/detail.html?id=1909&page=all
https://mn.gov/mnddc/parallels2/pdf/70s/77/77-MR76-PCMR.pdf