I’m not at all excusing it, but don’t prisoners technically get paid for their work? It’s just some horrifically pathetic wage like $0.50/hr or something like that.

I was curious how many people in prison are forced to work. If this source is correct, it’s about 2/3. But the conditions of that work are apparently worse than I’d thought. Here’s the original report (posted last year) and an article with a summary. Correction is welcome if this is inaccurate ◉⁠‿⁠◉