There’s a lot of research of people for whom punishment obviously didn’t act as a deterrent, and unsurprisingly this research concludes that the prospect of punishment doesn’t act as a deterrent.

There is no research I’m aware of on people for whom the prospect of punishment did act as a deterrent (i.e. people who decided not to commit the crime).

So I argue that there is a very big selection bias in literature surrounding the effectiveness of punishment as a deterrent .

Unfortunately government sanctioned slavery does still exist in the US prison system.

Ah then I trust you are completely aware that federal prisons already make prisoners work for their keep, and the privatization of prisons and their lobbying has led to a vicious cycle of imprisonment for cheap prison slave labor?

Of course, those prisoners aren’t billionaire healthcare CEOs, so maybe not…

[dead]

The US constitution explicitly allows for this (prisoner slavery) so there's that