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Comment by AngryData | Hacker News Reader

Im not sure I would call "You can sit in a concrete box all day and then eat food that was rejected from the dog food plant" versus "Go outside for awhile doing some work, be able to buy a pack of prepackaged ramen when you are done" clearly voluntary.

Have you ever ate prison food? I literally would not feed most of it to my dog.

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It’s even deeper than this, because in some states, like Georgia, you’re “rewarded” with good time and a higher chance of parole.

Good time means you get to exit the prison for things like visiting family.

The prisoners are coerced to work for sub-human wages because, if they don’t, they stay in prison longer and can’t see their loved ones.

Would it be better if you could only do the former then?

Also, if you worked 8 hours you'd be able to buy a lot more than a single pack of ramen.

> While ramen costs about 35 cents at Target, prison commissaries charge between 24 cents to $1.06 nationwide.

https://theappeal.org/locked-in-priced-out-how-much-prison-c...

It would be better if they weren't treated like dogs to begin with and they shouldn't be allowed to undercut local labor costs. Nor should the jail receive 75% of their wage on top of the 400% markup on commissary items they already take. Thats ends up with about 6% of the wages value going to the workers on top of their wages being 3x lower than local workers.

We incentivize creating the conditions of the former, and increased incarceration, by making the latter profitable.

> "You can sit in a concrete box all day and then eat food that was rejected from the dog food plant"

Isn't that not the actual choice though?

Like for a prison with monetary advantages to the inmates working don't they actually send you to solitary for refusing work detail?

The uncomfortable part of that is the involuntary part, not the work.

Prison is not voluntary.

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