We don't know that it was his idea, but he approved and protected the racket throughout his term in office as Governor of Arkansas.
Maybe Hilldawg actually had the idea of taking a confined population of drug addicts, sociopaths and totally innocent inmates and selling the only thing they had of value. Plasma.
Arkansas only stopped the practice when the "Great Grifter" Gov W.J. Clinton, left office.
It's a fact that a guard who drains a pint of blood from a prisoner and sells it for $ 32.00 fiat, is generally considered a dirtbagge
but a politician who drains a pint from every prisoner in the state penal system is presidential timber - -like W Jefferson Clinton.
What's even funnier, wikipedia, blames the prisoners for ripping off the Red Cross and poisoning the blood supply.
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/arkansas-prison-blood-scandal-3732/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factor_8:_The_Arkansas_Prison_Blood_Scandal