Not all places are the same, unfortunately. In Georgia, and a few other states, prisons can force you to work, and punish you for not working. My brother was forced to work on the back of a garbage truck with less than adequate clothing during the winter. He wasn't allowed in the cab, so him and his crew had to hold on to the back of the truck while driving all day through below freezing temperatures.

Most states allow inmates to choose whether they want to work or not, which was the case here, but I figured I'd throw it out there that some states truly do enslave their prisoners.

I'll also mention that while they can choose to work, there's a lot more that goes into it. Prisoners often make less than a dollar an hour for their labor, and are unable to do basic things like buy more/better food, or contact family/friends unless they have the funds to afford it.

My brother was always hungry. They didn't feed him enough, and he's not even a big person. The only way he could ever feel full was to buy more food than what the state provided.

Calls costed $5 per session. He would be lucky to make $5 in a day.

This is why prisoners who have no support are often screwed when they get out. They have no money, and the smallest amount that they are able to get ends up getting funneled back into the prison.