Very powerful story. I've never been to prison but I have two friends that have been tortured there as well. There is no valid excuse for this behavior. It's bad for everyone.
The truly sickening thing about some places (Louisiana) is that their economy is based on the slave labor that the Revenge System brings in. Fixing the problem would literally crash the economy. It's pretty disgusting how entrenched this embarrassment truly is. To top it off, the entire system is heavily rooted in racism.
I wrote a post about this as well:
Beware The Police State
I hope that one day people will wake up out of their coma and realize how many bad things are happening around the globe on a daily basis; all preventable.
I understand where you're coming from, but beware this argument. It was the same one used to justify much grimmer forms of slavery at one point.
It can be fixed without crashing the economy, which is of course not to say that it will.
Honestly, I would choose to crash the economy.