Prison labour could indeed be viewed as something unethical as one could argue that the businesses are “exploiting” these prison labourers rather than spending some more money to solve the unemployment problems that exist everywhere in the society these days.
But is this really as unethical as it seems to us on the surface? Well, the government apparently doesn’t think so as it is not doing anything to try and stop this from happening everywhere in the prisons. These “jobs” they say are the right type of activities that should be provided to the prisoners as they are going to help in rehabilitating these prisoners faster. Also, when these prisoners get back out to the society, they would finally have some skills to survive and get a job within the society, lowering their chance of going back in to criminal activities again for living.
It is true that this takes away the potential job field that could be available for those that are jobless right now and in need of the job, but a dilemma is posed. Would you rather leave no chance for the prisoners and save those that remain in the society? Or give a second chance to these prisoners.