3 ms·

The article specifically mentions that he was threatened with prison if he didn't work fast enough. That implies he had the option to stop work and, instead, go

• gambiting 5y ago
  This is only me guessing, but I'd assume this kind of behaviour would be noted in his files as some kind of insubordination and used against him if he ever applied for parole or similar.
• woodruffw 5y ago
  “Stop working and you’ll go to a hitherto unknown, potentially worse, prison” doesn’t sound like any kind of option that I’m familiar with. The article makes it sound like many of these men were on their first offence (if that’s even applicable here) and may not have realized that their current status as slave laborers was actually the worse one. They probably shouldn’t be faulted for that.
• bmj 5y ago
  He had no choice in going to rehab initially, I'm not sure "summon the wrath of the rehab managers and then get sent to prison" is reasonably considered a fair choice. I also suspect that getting remanded to prison because of a poor work ethic would not help his case for parole.