Privatization has undeniably led to problems of gross mismanagement, brutality and across-the-board skimping.

A hotel chain with more than 100,000 beds in more than 150 facilities, which serves some 90,000 patrons, would be considered a vast enterprise. So, too, are the novel “hotels,” with unwilling “guests,” that are described by these numbers. They are private prisons, a booming business in this country, where capitalism has penetrated correctional systems in at least 27 states.