That's a good idea. And it will build self-esteem and teach skills to the "students".
And we also have rich mineral deposits in this country. Instead of leasing them to Canadian mining companies for pennies on the dollar, we should open penitentiary mines. The prisoners could mine gold and silver, proceeds which would go to pay off US debt.
Whaaa, can’t force prisoners to work. That’d be like, uh, slavery or something!
There’s a county jail near me that takes a work crew out. There is a no smoking policy but the guard buys cigarettes with his own money to bribe them to work. Most inmates still sit around doing nothing and some can’t be bothered to get out of the van. When the local ladies clubs bring them pizza as thanks for cleaning up the parks, they make rude sounds and talk loudly what they’d like to do to the ladies. Guards aren’t allowed to discipline or write up reports on the slime ball punks.