[londons_explore]

There are interesting links to slavery and workhouses by allowing people to do actual labor from prison.

There is pretty much no way to allow people to 'volunteer' to do this kind of work without giving someone an incentive to get as many people into prison and using it as a giant slave work camp.

[selfhoster11]

It's an open source project, that he originally contributed. It's a far cry from "slave work" if the work is voluntary and the result ends up in the digital commons.

[ajsnigrutin]

Don't prisoners already work in prisons, atleast in US ones? (although my knowledge comes mostly from movies and new articles).

[londons_explore]

I think the US is pretty unique in this regard. Most other countries don't allow this for the moral/ethical reasons in the parent post.

[d_tr]

In Greece you can optionally work while incarcerated, provided there is work to do for some of the prison's facilities, and each workday counts as two regarding your stay there.