There are different goals a society can hope to achieve by imprisoning its citizens for crimes depending on its philosophy. These include retribution, rehabilitation, protecting society from the individual, and deterring citizens from committing crime. You are focusing on retribution and deterrence. Planting potatoes in the hot sun does little to mitigate any damage done by a prisoner and seems more like revenge than mitigation.
Training and incentivizing a prisoner to change their behavior (rehabilitation) has a better chance to provide a much larger gain for society in the long run.
> But fundamentally, making prisoners work is not a bad thing.
Forced labor is a violation of human rights. Either these rights are inalienable or they aren't.
Training and incentivizing a prisoner to change their behavior (rehabilitation) has a better chance to provide a much larger gain for society in the long run.
> But fundamentally, making prisoners work is not a bad thing.
Forced labor is a violation of human rights. Either these rights are inalienable or they aren't.