The number of inmates in state custody has gone up by about 2,000 in the two years since the Louisiana Legislature passed a slew of laws lengthening prison stays. The growing population is one factor driving a projected increase in the corrections budget.
It’s an easy sell to the people supplying those jobs or their benefactors: If you educate people and give them jobs, the employers have to pay fair market rate for that labor. If you put them in prison, they can force them to work for pennies.