In recent years, prison strikes and controversies have brought public attention to the systemic problems with prison labor in the United States. Such labor often exploits people who are imprisoned to do work that is vital to society—including firefighting, farming, or manufacturing consumer goods—with wages that can be less than a dollar per hour in highly coercive working conditions. Although there is call to end prison labor today, theories of prison labor have historically been contested, even among activists and progressive reformers. Accordingly, this review offers a short sociological history of labor in correctional environments, highlights contemporary controversies, and argues for a more fine-grained approach to the relationships among labor, prisons, and reentry. It traces the field of reformers and scholars that have made arguments for punitive, rehabilitative, restorative, and transformative approaches to work. The contested theories of prison labor across time and space suggest that a better understanding is needed of what makes labor exploitative and what forms of labor have the potential to transform the root causes of crime, within and beyond prison walls. Overall, this review has implications for those who study prison and reentry programs, relationships between crime and community, and the political economy of incarceration.

中文翻译：

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有争议的监狱劳动实践理论

近年来，监狱罢工和争议引起了公众对美国监狱劳工系统性问题的关注。这种劳动经常剥削那些被监禁从事对社会至关重要的工作的人——包括消防、农业或制造消费品——在高度强制性的工作条件下，每小时的工资可能不到一美元。尽管今天有人呼吁结束监狱劳动，但监狱劳动理论在历史上一直存在争议，甚至在激进主义者和进步改革者之间也是如此。因此，这篇综述提供了惩教环境中劳动的简短社会学历史，突出了当代的争议，并主张对劳动、监狱和再入狱之间的关系采取更细粒度的方法。它追溯了改革者和学者的领域，他们为惩罚性、康复性、恢复性和变革性的工作方法提出了论据。跨时间和空间的监狱劳动有争议的理论表明，需要更好地理解是什么使劳动具有剥削性，以及什么样的劳动形式有可能改变监狱围墙内外的犯罪根源。总的来说，这篇评论对那些研究监狱和再入狱计划、犯罪与社区之间的关系以及监禁的政治经济学的人有影响。跨时间和空间的监狱劳动有争议的理论表明，需要更好地理解是什么使劳动具有剥削性，以及什么样的劳动形式有可能改变监狱围墙内外的犯罪根源。总的来说，这篇评论对那些研究监狱和再入狱计划、犯罪与社区之间的关系以及监禁的政治经济学的人有影响。跨时间和空间的监狱劳动有争议的理论表明，需要更好地理解是什么使劳动具有剥削性，以及什么样的劳动形式有可能改变监狱围墙内外的犯罪根源。总的来说，这篇评论对那些研究监狱和再入狱计划、犯罪与社区之间的关系以及监禁的政治经济学的人有影响。