The Prison Boom with Shannon Heffernan

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Where did all these prisons come from? WBEZ’s Shannon Heffernan is here to give us part of the answer, which involves “small government” (of course), Lennie Briscoe (as always), the pink flowers of Alcatraz, and a prison sweepstakes that produced the actual worst song of the 80s.Two quick corrections via Shannon: "I said Illinois has potential plans to shrink one prison and close another. That was an error. Both plans are about shrinking facilities. I said CO's have a life expectancy of 56 years, the stat I meant to quote is 59 but since our interview, I discovered that statistic (and the stat about divorce) to be from studies/sources that are considered very weak so I've stopped using…