These prisoners are there for a multitude of different crimes ranging from drug possession and petty larceny to grand theft auto and murder. This has given rise to the private, or for-profit, prison. The private prison system raises a lot of questions. One that many people wonder about is how can a private company legally incarcerate people? The answer is yes, but the government does contract out quite a bit of their work. A public prison is one that is completely owned by the government. This means that they have to provide the prison building, staff the guards and administration, and oversee all of the prisoners and everything that happens in the prison. Even with a public prison, many of the services are outsourced to private contractors such as the food service, cleaning services and maintenance. With a private prison, many of the burdens are taken off the government and put onto a private company. Instead of all the business that goes along with running a prison, the government si...