I don't think anyone is arguing that. But the private prison issue is certainly overblown - their existence is not the reason why things in the U.S. criminal justice system are so bad. They were created in _response_ to prison overcrowding in the late 80s to reduce costs. And the number of prisoners in private prisons is tiny compared to the general prison population. They are a problem, but not the problem.
Sure. But the idea here is that there are many things wrong and that there is no reason to just tackle one of those things or do them serially. Some parties chose to challenge some elements of the criminal system directly, others choose to focus on other aspects of the problem. There is room for all of these. For the 7% or so that is in private prisons (commercial prisons would probably be a better term anyway) the situation is bad in ways that it isn't for the others and it is worth addressing those problems (to them for sure).
To say this doesn't warrant any attention is similar to saying that we don't need to do space travel or fundamental research before we've cured world hunger, cancer and aids because those address bigger and immediate problems.
