We still allow slave labor in general in the US[1] and farm labor for 13 year olds. That’s not to defend this practice but to point out it’s not as big an ethical leap for someone already observing situations close to this and rationalizing it as just pushing the envelope a bit in their mind.
[1]see the text of the 13th amendment and how private prisons operate if you are one of the 10000 today whose just learning this
I think there are many things wrong with the prison system in America. But calling it slave labor doesn't seem accurate. Under an assumption that the individuals are guilty of the crime and that the sentencing is applicable the inmates are paying off a debt to the society that they wronged.
There is plenty of room to be upset about bad sentencing guidelines and a system that wrongly convicts alongside the privatization of prisons. But slave labor is not I think an accurate summation.
>Section 1
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.
>Section 2
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
The above is the exact text of the 13th amendment outlawing slavery. It allows for a single exception to this, allowing slave labor when it is a punishment for a convicted criminal. Calling it anything other than slave labor seems to the inaccurate description to me. I find most Americans are squeamish to call it what it is because we've developed this national narrative that slavery is one of the worst things a society can allow(which I agree with) and that we fought a war to abolish it entirely(which I do not agree with).
>...the inmates are paying off a debt to the society that they wronged.
The imprisonment is paying off a debt to society. If they were entirely focused on infrastructure work, I could consider it paying off a debt to society. Producing all these consumer and luxury items for sale at profit does not fit under "paying a debt to society".[1]
[1]see the text of the 13th amendment and how private prisons operate if you are one of the 10000 today whose just learning this