Putting Prisoners to Work

We are ill-treated and work like slaves for 13 hours every day producing these bags in bulk in the prison factory," continued the letter, which was tucked into the bottom of the bag.  It ended, "Thanks and sorry to bother you."

Of course, this could all very well be an urban legend, a ruse, a socialist plot to make honest, successful companies look bad.  I mean, a letter in a bag?  Unnamed "Homeland Security officials?"  

Where's the real evidence that prisoners are being put to work in harsh conditions, right?  This is pretty thin.  And even if it turns out that some prisoners somewhere were being put to work, they're just earning their keep at state-funded facilities, right?  I mean, bloated bureaucracies, that's one thing, but prisoners earning their keep - that's just good resource use, isn't it?

They're clearly in prison because they've done something wrong - they had some form of restitution coming.  Just desserts, right?  To each their own?

Speaking of which, government wouldn't cost so much and there'd be less crime to worry about if people just carried their own weight.  Really, it's social services that are crippling our economic well-being.  That and people who simply don't get and stick to our social norms.

The welfare state was a bad idea from the beginning, propping up the weak as it does.  Instead, we should be pursuing workfare - you don't get unless you work.  It should be as true of prisoners as the socially inept and or deviant.

That's the way it would be, really, if not for those damned socialists.  

Right?