[mcpackieh]

Prison labor is not intrinsically bad, but they should not be exempt from minimum wage laws. Ideally there should be some mechanism for forcing prisons to pay the prisoners a fair market wage; even if the prisoner doesn't deserve it, the rest of the labor market deserves to not compete with underpaid prison labor. And we need another constitutional amendment, removing the exemption for convicted criminals in the 13th.

If those issues were cleared up, then giving prisoners the opportunity to learn how to earn money legitimately would be good for rehabilitation. So prison labor is not intrinsically mistreatment.