The New York Times reports today that new research in Arizona and elsewhere shows private prisons don't save states money - they actually cost more. That's in part because the private lockups "cherry pick" the healthiest, least expensive inmates to house, leaving states to deal with the more costly portions of their prison population. “There’s a perception that the private sector is always going to do it more efficiently and less costly,” Russ Van Vleet, a former co-director of the University of Utah Criminal Justice Center, told Times reporter Richard A. Oppel Jr. “But there really isn’t much out there that says that’s correct.” You can real Oppel's full story here.