Right, thanks for the info. I just read up on prison work. From what I read, it seems like it varies a lot from prison to prison and state to state on the actual number of hours worked per day. Some say an hour or two a day, and some said that it can be as much as 8 or 10 hours per day. Additionally, many of the jobs do pay money. Not a lot, but it does allow prisoners to put some money into their canteen allowance, which is a really big deal in prison, from what I read. I've also read that a lot of the work detail is pretty lax. Sweep the prison might be 2 hours per day, and even then, you sweep a few yards, then you rest on your broom for 15 minutes. Again, this is not me but what I heard when I watched prison videos by ex-cons.

In any case, it seems like there is a LOT of discretion around the mandatory work issue. So it would seem to me that in a prison, if a prisoner wanted to work on getting a degree, that he or she should be able to use work hours for that and either the warden or the state law allow it. After all, it is the most proven thing I've ever seen to prevent recidivism. That's what we want. We don't want someone to get out of prison and start breaking into our homes and cars. I've had my car broken into many times, and it's a pain because it costs money, but the bigger pain is the time it takes to deal with it.

As far as slavery....well, I understand your point. However, people are incarcerated and put in a cage against their will. Because when you break the law and get caught, you give up your freedom to choose. It's not just forced work, but even if one didn't have to work, it still is like slavery - you are made to live in one place, can't have visitors except when supervised and get permission and for very short periods, told when and where to eat and must eat what they serve. It's pretty much slavery anyways, even taking the work part out. But as I hear it on the videos that I watch from former prisoners, most prisoners WANT to work, because it gets boring in prison, so while it is mandatory, it's also by choice too. And some jobs are very much coveted by prisoners. And mostly the do get paid. Probably a good idea to pay 50 cents so that the poor convicts with no family to put money in the canteen account will get something, as I said before, the canteen is extremely important.