How much does the prison system gross?

Answer 1

The 'prison system' is the government operated incarceration system. As such, it is pure overhead and costs lots of taxpayer money, it does not earn money. There may be some ways to reduce costs such as prison labor but in general there is no profit. However, some private companies operate prisons for the government, and those companies make money. But that's no different than a city hiring a company to collect garbage, while the garbage collection company might make a profit, it is still an expense the taxpayers have to fund.