Seriously, prison work schemes are modern indentured servitude, or if you like, slavery. Slave is what you call a captive employee, right? The difference now is that the state subsidizes the scheme by feeding and housing the slaves, and taking care of security.
Paying a minimum wage is a start in the right direction, but ultimately the only moral endgame is abolishing forced labor and reducing the prison population drastically.
It's not just metaphorical slavery, it's literal. The Thirteenth Amendment allows for the enslavement of prisoners.
> Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Paying a minimum wage is a start in the right direction, but ultimately the only moral endgame is abolishing forced labor and reducing the prison population drastically.