Conflicting policy goals regarding prisons
• Some states privatize prisons.
• In conservative Texas, cost of mass incarceration led the state
to invest in mental health & rehabilitation
• Fewer crimes & less recidivism
• “Tough on crime” shifting to “smart on crime”
• Humane treatment of felons
• Must be consistent w/ 8th Amendment prohibition on “cruel & unusual punishment”
• E.g. Prison overcrowding in CA ruled “degrading to human