Ah, yes. Hurting the homeless. Of course. Silly me.

“if you don’t wanna do forced labor, just don’t commit crime”.

a poor education and ignorance (willful or other) are a key factor to why they have that sentiment.

an educated and informed person would realize that "punishment" does not benefit society. they would see how other countries approach the topic and realize that treatment and support are what criminals need ( not all of them obviously ). an informed populace would also look internally and realize prison-enforced slavery incentivizes increased incarceration of petty crimes, which only pushes people into more crime, not to mention private prisons and the 13th amendment make for an evil combination.

to quote SOAD:

All research and successful drug policy show that treatment should be increased

And law enforcement decreased while abolishing mandatory minimum sentences