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Comment by ta20240528

11 days ago

Have you asked any of the inmates at the Angola "working farm" in Louisiana?

Apparently 63% are serving life terms, 27% more than 20 years.

Doesn't seem worse than China's attempt to iron out a seditious, violent sub-culture that was actually detonating bombs amongst civilians? Most seem to have closed, so the maximum term < 10 years.

Neither are good ideas IMHO - but one way worse than the other? Come now.

> Neither are good ideas IMHO - but one way worse than the other? Come now.

Inmates in any prison in the US ostensibly have gone through due process and were convicted of their crimes. You can argue about whether the US justice system is truly fair, but it's (at least in historic years) certainly more fair than rounding up large portions of a specific ethnic minority for 'reeducation'.

  • I would argue that in the 21st century being convicted of a crime does not make your labour essentially free to the state for the rest of your life.

    • Exactly, a notion of free prison labor incentivizes discrimination and as we see it that is often how it plays out in reality.