> Forced labor as a proportionate punishment for a crime you were found guilty of by a fair trial is not a problem in my book

Let’s see all of the things wrong packed in that statement:

1. Most people in jail aren’t “found guilty” of a crime by a trial at all. Most are pressured by both the DAs and the state funded Public defender to accept a plea deal. 95% take a plea deal.

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/11/04/the-truth-abou...

2. Trials are rarely “fair”. All of the statistics show that minorities get harsher sentences for the same arrest.

https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/publications/racial-d...

3. The state has unlimited resources. They rarely give enough funding to the public defenders office

https://www.aclu.org/news/criminal-law-reform/if-you-care-ab...