I’m not here to argue on the situation. What I am saying is that if you discuss this with somebody neutral or opposed to you, it matters to make sure you position yourself well. Otherwise you can get completely sidetracked over words, as we are currently.

If you say “prisoners are being forced to work”, that can turn into a losing discussion quickly when you have to get into an extended discussion about how prisoners aren’t actively being dragged to work against their will. Actively being dragged out of their cells and put to work would be the initial connotation, as I’ve even seen in this thread. Once that connotation is shown not to be what’s happening, you’ll lose people quickly.

If right out of the gate you say prisoners are being coerced to work with the threat of an unfair parole hearing, you are on a much stronger foundation that people can’t truthfully pick at.

I get the feeling you feel so strongly about this that you might not care about what other people initially think initially or that you don’t want to give ground on what qualifies as forcing something, but if you want to get your message across, making it more bulletproof helps it.