It isn't clear to me that prison labour in the US is meaningfully distinct from slavery

It isn't, which is why the 13th amendment (which bans other forms of slavery) explicitly permits it.

Some members from both houses of Congress have recently proposed a constitutional amendment to change this:

https://www.merkley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/The%20Abolition...

Because it isn't. It's distinct from chattel slavery, which is not the only form of slavery. Bonded labor is the most common form of slavery today, and is also not chattel slavery.

Except for the due process trial, conviction, and sentencing.

yeah, that's the way it is justified, repaying debts to society.

> The Thirteenth Amendment (Amendment XIII) to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_Un...

This doesn't say “prison labor is slavery”; it says that prison labor is allowed to be slavery. You should've provided some reference to e.g. a news article to back up your claim.

It's legal to paint yourself blue and write obscenities on your face and walk into a library, but that isn't evidence that anyone does it. (Likewise, it's legal to make people pay you fifty times the inflation-adjusted value of a loan you gave them – things being legal isn't evidence that they don't happen, which would be absurd.)

Forced labor is slavery, full stop. This was recognized by the men who wrote the 13th amendment. It is not "definitely different". And no, paying a slave does not make it 'not slavery.' Slaves have been paid paltry sums some of the time throughout history. It's still slavery.

But you haven't showed it occurs; only that it's legal. Plenty of things are legal that nobody does, and plenty of things are illegal that people do all the time.

I happen to know a little bit about what goes on in US prisons, so it's confusing me why you're not providing any of the mountains of evidence to support your point.

Please don't do that here. From the guidelines:

> Don't be snarky.

> Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> CCP shills

And that is also against the rules:

> Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken.

If you despise the rules so much why do you even keep coming here?