I disagree, once convicted and sent to jail you forfeit freedom. Read the post above yours, they can be slaves. It’s not wrong to treat a convict like a slave, they should not be coddled at all. There needs to be a penalty system that punishes, and forced labor is the ticket. Harder labor for harder crimes.
And they should be for profit, keeps taxes down. Jails are cost in the millions to build and maintain.
The system is broken, and there's a few glaring reasons that won't get corrected come Hell or high water.
1. Convicted inmates should be worked. They should also receive some sort of wage - not the laughable pittance they get in a lot of jurisdictions. The public employee unions don't like the competition, however - but they DO like spending our tax dollars.
2. The inmates should be producing their own food. They used to, in many areas. Now, they get crappy food from low-bid food service companies.
3. The point of The Great Big Giant Large Criminal Jesters System is to blow our tax dollars like drunken sailors - except that drunken sailors are spending their OWN money, and eventually they run out. Our Masters just keep writing rubber checks.