In this well researched and executed documentary, one goes on a journey into a troubling side of the American prison system, where profit is the motive and private prisons is a growth industry. I listened fascinated and slightly horrified at this fact rich story of an industry that seems boundless in it?s opportunities, yet relies on the incarceration of one?s fellow countrymen in huge numbers in order to sustain itself.

In the interest of full disclosure, I worked with this program?s producer Jo Ann Mar for many years at KALW in San Francisco, so the meticulously gathered facts and wide range of coverage of ?Crime Pays? comes as no surprise. Mar is thorough and focused in anything she puts her mind to. It shows here in this deeply engrossing hour, very worthy of the prestigious George Polk award it has garnered.

You can reward your listeners with an hour of great investigative journalism that is getting scarce on public radio these days.