Putting prevention ahead of incarceration will benefit communities and taxpayers—to the dismay of the private prison companies. The Justice Policy Institute says the profiteers want you locked up:

A number of states are already utilizing innovative strategies for reducing the number of people behind bars in their state. Reducing the number of people entering the justice system, and the amount of time that they spend there, can lower prison populations, making private, for-profit prisons unnecessary, and improving public safety and the lives of individuals.

Tracy Velázquez, executive director of JPI says: 

"Taxpayers lose when their money is used to generate profits for shareholders and to promote policies that increase incarceration; communities lose when policies proven to be ineffective for public safety are pushed through state legislatures, and people involved in the criminal justice system lose when they are locked up in underfunded and sometimes unsafe facilities."

....private prison companies continue to promote policies that put money in their pockets and people behind bars."

Why not invest in treatments and services that will improve communities and lower crime rates? Rather than focusing on putting people behind bars, let's put more energy and money towards keeping people from being there in the first place.