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The "Protestant Work Ethic" of the 19th century demanded that prisoners work for the sake of their own 'moral development'. Turns out it was a really great excuse to turn prison wardens into labor contractors.
working on the chain gang
"Huh, I wonder why these Good Ol' Boys put so many former slaves on this chain gang? It must be a coincidence. Good thing this doesn't resemble anything unfortunate!"
Let's dress them up like zebras so that people can't tell if they are black slaves with white stripes or white slaves with black stripes!
I feel like that has to be a really old quote or phrase
Verily, let us garb them akin to zebras, so as to confound the discernment of whether they be black thralls with white stripes or white thralls with black stripes!
I mean tbf there are things you can have prisoners do that seem to help develop them in the prison, working with animals is the one I remember most recently, but in the Nordics they actually have these guys chop down the timber they use for the community stove and the woodshop.
Maybe we just gotta ask if the job is analogous to anything that a kid in grade school would have willingly signed up for.
Here in the United States they actually produce products that are sold to the general public, for profit, for like $0.13 an hour.
But that’s ok because you know, a dimebag or loose cigarettes or whatever
When a prison rather resembles a merry commune and the free outside world is a capitalist hell hole...