Dude, it is still a prison. Saying ‘yeah I could use a highly regimented living space for a while’ is one thing. But a prison is still something else.
Workhouses in Victorian England were very harsh places, sometimes even harsher than the prisons of the time… but they were not prisons. If a workhouse inmate wanted to leave, they could up and go at any moment without anyone stopping them. Because it was not a prison.
The difference is that your example is designed to exploit you and, generally, your freedom amounts to “leave and get exploited elsewhere.” This is the same for poverty. Sure, technically you could walk away… But to do what? Suffer elsewhere in poverty?
Those in Swedish prisons aren’t free to leave, but that’s not the only kind of freedom that exists. Freedom from starvation, danger, from the influences that lead to the crime that put you in prison. Is it really so hard to imagine a world where you might give up some freedom for real, tangible safety and peace of mind?
