system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
I believe that prisons should be work camps where you must work if you want to eat. CMV.

I believe that convicted criminals should be locked in a place where they are not allowed to leave, but also if they expect to be given food, they should be expected to work.

They would be paid minimum wage, and the cost of food, heat, housing, prison guards would be subtracted from their earnings. Whatever money was left over after these subtractions would go into an account so they could get back on their feet after they are released.

If they are in for life, then they have no reason to work any longer than they need to in order to pay for their living expenses.

If a prisoner refuses to work, then he/she should be kept in a separate part of the prison and not given food until he/she either cooperates or dies from starvation.

It is absolutely ridiculous that I have to pay for prisoners to sit around on their asses and do nothing all day.
gpt
The problem is that this system has been used in the past as a workaround for the emancipation of slavery.

Slavery abolished? No problem! Make a bunch of pointless laws, and either target them at black people or enforce them in a racialized manner, and suddenly you still basically have slavery.

The Prison-Industrial complex is already strong enough without letting them get slavery back, too.