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You also create strange perverse incentives to keep as many people in prison as possible.

And those people in prison working for pennies per day ,as you've alluded, take jobs from free people. If you want to see peak absurdity, California has legions of prisoner firefighters.

But you can be a firefighter with a felony on your record, so while the state of California is fine with paying them peanuts for risking their lives, it won't make them full-fledged firefighters once they're released.

If any other country was doing this, our various propaganda agencies would be crying foul.