It's not just the U.S. it's happening all around the "free" world.
Privatised prisons need a steady supply of fake criminals to prosper. Even words and opinions are crimes now.
Governments are all corporations now & a corporate body basically means a dead body, so we have a situation where the dead rule over the living.
Big government = public enemy No 1
This is something that far too many people in the USA do not realize.
As someone expatriated for many decades I see this firsthand.
I would mention places I witness this visible but I may still need to be able to visit...