INC.ARCERATION

As many of you know, Arizona governor Jan Brewer has signed a controversial law which would have made it easier for authorities to round up illegal or illegal-looking (ie hispanic) immigrants. Let's set aside the immigration debate and whatever you feel about this law. Rachel Maddow's lead story on her MSNBC broadcast ...uncovers a possible reason that Jan was keen to have this law passed. Perhaps she doesn't dislike mexicans at all. But she'd gladly harness the prejudice against mexicans in her state for profit. It seems that Arizona's private prisons have very close ties to Jan. Lobbyists for the private prison industry work for Jan. In fact, last year Arizona proposed that ALL of the state's prisons be privatized. Luckily, this was struck down as ridiculous.

But 5,000 new beds have been ordered for one private facility. Wouldn't that be profitable if there were suddenly a bunch of illegal aliens apprehended to fill those beds thanks to a nifty new law?

I'm sorry, the existence of private prisons is horrifying in itself. But to think that this dubious industry would be so tied with Arizona state government that it was helping to create the laws is INSANE!

This issue has been highlighted by a recent jailbreak from a for-profit prison where a car drove up to the fence, a cousin/girlfriend (???) threw wire-cutters to inmates over the fence which set off an uninvestigated alarm, the fence was cut and the prisoners drove off. With no staff of this pitiful private prison noticing the alarm, fence, or jailbreak for several hours. How do you not notice an alarm for hours?

Rachel Maddow's re-broadcast will begin airing in a few minutes at 11PM EST and it's her lead story: INCarceration. Truly bizarre. As if we needed an industry we didn't even know existed to pop up and create our friggin' laws the way we know the insurance, gas, gun, war, big pharma, cellphone and food additive industries already do.

WATCH: RACHELMADDOW