Is slavery alive and well in the United States prison system? Inmates today are forced to work, often for just pennies an hour.
The images of mostly Black inmates working on former plantations-turned-prisons like Angola in Louisiana conjure up some pretty unpleasant images of racism and slavery in the South. But some argue that prison labor plays an important role in rehabilitation. Do prisons exist to punish or to rehabilitate? Depending on your answer, that may affect how you view prison labor, and more broadly, prisoners’ rights.
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