Fun fact: the 13th Amendment permits slavery as punishment for a crime. Yay, America!
IMHO if the system is fair and there was a real crime (Not people getting punished for some BS „crime“ or for just belonging to a minority, wrong skin color etc.) then let them work. But not for corpos/financial reasons: Let them do things that make everyday life of everybody outside a bit better. This way they can at least give something back to society.
Edit: Forgot to mention that I don’t think that something like this would work in the US.
I’m absolutely in favor of providing inmates with conditional employment and education opportunities. I’ve heard of several programs where inmates are allowed to continue their previous jobs under heavy supervision (mainly in court cam videos where living brain donors of the sovereign citizen persuasion voluntarily lose said privilege). The problems start when said labour becomes compulsory.
So long as they are paid the same wage as non-prisoners. Anything else is slavery.
Yes, being incarcerated and working while being paid $0.50 an hour is STILL slavery.