US prisons are so full because people do the time.
The prison industrial complex is a deliberate lengthening of sentences and increasing of mandatory jail time for non-violent offenses designed to increase the for-profit prison population to increase profit.
That’s not how the world or capitalism works at all. Plenty of people want things and don’t get them.
If you are referring to “a majority of people” then it’s still not how it works - for example the structure of the existing system affects it (see no president Clinton). There is much more to decisions and change.
In this case, a minority of profit seeking people with power use levers of control on decision makers and propaganda to create public policy.