Re: Taking back some of what I said..
"However, I think that for the people behind this sort of thing, there should be an example made such that those who have profitted from innocent people going to prison"
This is happening in _some_ areas. In one case a judge was found to be getting kickbacks from a privately run prison for sending juveniles there - in most cases they turned out to be innocents on trumped up charges.
That particular judge is unlikely to ever be released.
Corruption in the USA is at least as bad as any west african country, just slightly less blatent in most cases.