What is the biggest lie about the criminal justice system? Hands down, I would say that the biggest lie is that our current system is about justice. Because regrettably, it isn’t.
It’s very much about jobs and profit.
…Whoops. I just said the quiet part out loud.
Allow me to explain:
The Profit Engine Behind the System
A jail is built and staffed. But now, the facility needs to be filled, otherwise, it will sit empty, and the surrounding private companies that profit from inmate phone calls, commissary sales, and prison labor won’t generate revenue.
Empty beds won’t pay salaries, and they certainly won’t feed a multi-billion-dollar industry of prison contractors, telecom companies, private prisons, and entire supply chains built around incarceration.
How Courts and Law Enforcement Feed the Cycle
Once you have a jail, you also need a courthouse with judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, clerks, bailiffs, and probation officers.
But these roles depend on a steady stream of cases to justify their funding and existence.
Judges and prosecutors aren’t evaluated based on community healing or justice served. They are incentivized, formally or informally, based on case closures, conviction rates, and plea deals, not by whether justice was truly achieved.
Meanwhile, police departments are often funded based on arrest numbers and drug seizure amounts, not community wellness. Studies have shown that officers often feel direct or indirect pressure to meet “productivity standards.”
…Which is a sanitized way of saying quotas.
Why the System Resists True Reform
If crime truly plummeted…
If recidivism rates truly dropped…
If communities became whole, safe, and self-sufficient…
Thousands of jobs would be eliminated.
Entire economies (especially in rural areas where prisons are a primary employer) would collapse without the human beings funneled into the system.
This is why, despite endless rhetoric about “rehabilitation,” very few systemic incentives exist to actually prevent crime or end mass incarceration.
True solutions, like affordable housing, education, mental health care, and job training, do not funnel money into the courts or police budgets.
In fact, they make the criminal justice system less needed, which threatens the very structure of the system as it currently operates.
Who Pays the Price?
The ones who suffer most are the people caught in the system:
- Families bankrupted by fines, bail, and commissary costs
- Communities stripped of their members through mass incarceration
- Survivors of harm who often see no real healing or accountability
- Entire generations saddled with records that limit their futures
The real “crime” is a system built not to serve people, but to serve itself.
We Must Confront the Truth
Until we address the deep entanglement of profit and punishment, the American criminal legal system will continue to prioritize bodies in cells over justice in communities.
Justice should not be a business model.
It should be a collective commitment to healing, accountability, safety, and dignity for all.
