Despite some prison conditions being formerly described as unbearable at times, cruel and inhuman even, often times degrading,

Well, being on the outside, for many of these same people is crueller, more inhuman and so unbearable that people have committed crimes to get back in jail.

But there might be other less-costly approaches that produce better results.

Unless of course you have ulterior motives for owning a prison.

• Prisons are big money
• You get a slave population, whose upkeep is paid by someone else, but you get to keep the profits from goods sold.
• Ultimate power trip.
• "You" are being tough on crime... and that will help you get reelected.
• What better scam for keeping the dregs of society from being in society.

Of course, if we are trying to rehab criminals and have a nice society where children can be allowed to go to the store to buy a popsicle by themselves, then what we are doing with prisons
is completely wrong.