AFAIK, US prisons aren't making use of that 13th amendment exception and prison labor is voluntary. Prisoners choose it, despite the low wages, because it beat

AFAIK, US prisons aren't making use of that 13th amendment exception and prison labor is voluntary. Prisoners choose it, despite the low wages, because it beats sitting around on their ass all day. There's a very valid argument to be made for paying them the normal minimum wage, if for no other reason than to be fair to the rest of the workforce, but doing away with the opportunity to work for prisoners would just be cruel. As for it being eugenics, most prisoners are in for violent crimes or property crimes. Imprisoning people for stuff like failure to pay child support (modern debtors prison) is shameful, but not the sort of thing most US prisoners are in for.