Not that I've been to prison in California, public or private, but if you look up a guy named Wes Watson on youtube, who recently got out after >10 years in a mix of private and public California prisons, he mentions that the guards at state run prisons were actually much more effective and actually tried to do their job the right way, because they're paid well with state benefits and pensions and such, compared to the staff at private facilities, who he likened to WalMart employees.