Prison slavery. Yeah, it's a thing. Meaning it's one of the ways the U.S. government monetizes the inmates in its custody. At the local, state and federal levels, prisoners quietly serve as the government's own in-house workforce, helping reduce overhead and cut costs across the public sector. Prisoners are also the fodder of institutional labor trafficking, with correctional authorities routinely farming out inmate labor to the private sector. This labor has even come to play a role in the global economy.