Why ethics is more important with prison than with other things, like finance, health, food, drink, etc.? I would assume if I let somebody cut up my body or brain while I'm unconscious and pay tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for it, I'd be a bit worried if the said person had bad ethics, wouldn't you? Still, I see not many are having problem with brain surgeons not being government employees, as far as I can see.

>> And when all costs (even extraneous societal ones) are considered in an all encompassing cost model, outlawing them would be the optimal course of action, anyway

That would sound much stronger if it were backed by an actual consideration of the cost in an actual model, rather than a blanket unsupported statement of the outcome.

>> The price of some things just seem severely disconnected from their actual value (or lack thereof)

Or maybe their price reflects the actual value instead of the value you think they should have. How do you discover the actual value (not for you personally, but for the thing that concerns the whole society) anyway? Do you hold a vote? What if vote goes in favor of privatized prisons?