Young Turks host: Louisiana's sheriffs get a cut of America's 'prison capital'

The Young Turks host Ana Kasparian explained Tuesday how Louisiana sheriffs had an incentive to keep the inmate population high.

"None violent drug offenders end up in these prisons for very, very long sentences just because these sheriff's departments profit from it," she said.

Louisiana’s incarceration rate is the highest in the country, thanks in part to the large presence of prisons owned by private companies, which are often run by rural sheriffs.

The incarceration rate in Louisiana is triple the rate in Iran, seven times greater than in China, and 10 times more than Germany’s.

"Of course there is a racial angle to this as well," Kasparian said, "because when it comes to blacks in New Orleans alone, 1 in 14 are behind bars and 1 in 7 are either in prison, on parole or on probation."

Watch video, courtesy of Current TV, below: