If prisoners at least got paid minimum wage then maybe when they left prison they'd have a pool of funds to get their life put back together rather than resorting to crime in order to survive, repeating a cycle that gets them put back in there.
As for victimless crimes, do they really deserve prison to begin with and wouldn't we do better with alternatives, or perhaps even removing some of those laws entirely?
There are "victimless crimes" that are only victimless because everyone was lucky: a 3rd DUI, firing a gun in a crowded area but not hitting anyone, etc. Then there are crimes that have millions of potential victims: dumping toxic waste in a river, etc. It'd be an entire extra enigma the courts would have to figure out with every case. (I do think a big percentage of the "victimless crimes", like personal drug possession, should not even be crimes at all, but that's beside this point.)
Some even do so when there has been no conviction.
This is an industrial complex and they are the product.
There are exceptions of cause, see Norway.
The question is, what is prison supposed to be? Punishment? Reintegration? Deterrence?
Correctional Officer unions are among the hardest lobbiers against ANY decriminalization of marijuana, or any general "reform" to our criminal statutes.
That blows my mind. "Keep more things illegal so we have a job".