[ballard]

Most slaves turn a profit, while most prisons require funding.

Prisons are garbage processors for grinding up as many undesirables as possible, for as long as possible. Whom is chosen is somewhat random, but usually people that are undesirable: ugly or antisocial. As for the minor point of finding guilt: a crime can always be found, so that's not a limiting factor.

The majority have already volunteered to be slaves. Healthcare and visa status the whips for native and immigrant employees respectively, especially in the US. Debt and consumption alike further captivate these unfortunate creatures on an unending treadmill of pseudo-affluence they will never attain.

[sk5t]

Prisoners beget _revenue_ for the prison system. It is of no consequence that prisoners' labor fails to produce anything marketable that outshines their value to the prison system of only being, existing in a cage, and causing revenue to pour in.

[prawn]

Require funding or get funding? Doesn't a privatised prison derive a profit from its "use" of prisoners (getting/requiring funding) in the same way that slaveholders once derived a profit from their use of slaves?

[ballard]

Most prisons, whether for profit or not, require money to keep going. The money ultimately comes from society via taxes. But the net effect is it costs society thrice to imprison a person: fewer taxes collected, less goods/services produced and cost to imprison.

[prawn]

Ultimately, private prisons draw funds from those they hold captive, many of whom are imprisoned for minor issues.

[ballard]

The last part is agreed, but the inmates don't pay for their own incarceration (this aint Brazil yet).

The agencies that administer prisons get their funding from taxes, and the the level of funding maybe based on population.

But ultimately, society (taxes, etc.) pays for it.

[ballard]

The other sub-point... There's Korea/s, China, etc.

Have any countries humanely monitized inmates? That is provide a choice to meaningfully work while incarcerated.

[beedogs]

> Most slaves turn a profit, while most prisons require funding.

Not even relevant in private prisons, many of which put their prisoners to work and provide third-world wages to their inmates. And the funding comes from the government.