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The cost of running the criminal justice system is also enormous for the rest of us. state governments pour money into, spending an average of 5% of their local budgets on correctional institutions. the federal government spends a whopping total of $265 billion a year, essentially paid for by taxpayers. who's profiting from the billions of dollars being spent and where does all that money go? one answer i hear a lot. private prisons. the truth isn't what you might think. >> what is the percentage of private prisons in america? >> it's pretty small. basically they're stagnant around 6% of the t...

>> we're not manufacturing automobiles. no one profits from it. we also have shareholders. we're not traded on wall street. >> the company that's part of all of that. >> $265 billion a year in taxpayer spending means a sure profit for companies like securisk, who charge hiked up fees for prisoners to use phones to call their loved ones.

>> so who is driving it? taxpayers spend $265 billion a year on the criminal justice system. still, the question remains, where does all that money go? >> so tell me what you do and where we are? >> i'm the american director of an association, the only one we're aware of that focuses exclusively on the men and women who operate and work in our nation's jails. right now, we're on the shelf floor of our conference. this is where vendors showcase their products and services used in jails, everything from

Much of it from this industry. i'm starting to see why this $265 billion a year industry makes it so hard to change the system. >> basically the united states has done a good job of creating a self-perpetuating prisoner machine. their jobs depend on mass incarceration. sinclair lewis said it's hard to explain something to a man when his paycheck depends on him not understanding. >> to be fair, not just private companies. yearly $265 billion of our taxpayers money is for keeping prisons and jails going. wages are $38 billion a year, healthcare costs, $12.3 billion and $2 billion on food. as it ...

Could not exist without inmates. the entire prison industry would collapse without large numbers of people to incarcerate. to keep this $265 billion a year industry in place there needs to be a pipeline to provide a steady stream of new people. people who are dispensable. in the history of forced labor in america, those without power have often looked different from those in power. arresting those people who don't have power is the first step. when police officers put the