On the one hand, the prison industrial complex seems shady and problematic on many levels. There are companies and CEO's making massive profits while lobbying for stupid laws involving mandatory minimums and the War on Drugs that cost us all. And they can skimp on expenses by having the inmates do all the work.
On the other...I could really use some free labor and might actually look into it.
https://theintercept.com/2016/09/16/the ... cond-week/Across the country, inmates are protesting a wide range of issues: from harsh parole systems and three-strike laws to the lack of educational services, medical neglect, and overcrowding. But the issue that has unified protesters is that of prison labor — a $2 billion a year industry that employs nearly 900,000 prisoners while paying them a few cents an hour in some states, and nothing at all in others. In addition to work for private companies, prisoners also cook, clean, and work on maintenance and construction in the prisons themselves — forcing officials to pay staff to carry out those tasks in response to work stoppages. “They cannot run these facilities without us,” organizers wrote ahead of the strike. “We will not only demand the end to prison slavery, we will end it ourselves by ceasing to be slaves.”
