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Slaves were forced to perform labor. These inmates are not forced to perform this labor, and they are compensated for it.
by ra1n85 8y ago
Slaves were forced to perform labor. These inmates are not forced to perform this labor, and they are compensated for it.
- hnbroseph 8y agoslaves were compensated with food, and were incentivized through application of force. inmates are under constant threat of violence and abuse, which is itself a force. escaping that force briefly to do hard labor is a sad tradeoff and it is a cynical and disgusting brand of exploitation.
- sp332 8y agoUsually threatening to put someone in jail if they don't work for you is considered "force".
- chlvsl 8y agothey are already in jail for committing crimes and are offered between status quo or to fight fires. they are already in jail, so you cannot threaten to put someone into a situation they are already in.
- throwaway8689 8y agoThey're already in jail. The work is not mandatory. I'm interested to hear arguments from prison abolitionists but this is just hyperbole.
- sp332 8y agoLate edit to clarify: the argument that they "deserve" their original sentence doesn't hold water once you start offering to commute the sentence in exchange for work. At that point the deciding factor in how long someone is in jail is whether they work, and that is force. To go further, this has perverse incentives in that jailing people provides a source of cheap labor. But that's not what I was talking about specifically.