Personally, I think it's fair that they work to help support their upkeep. I'm not so comfortable with them being auctioned off to private firms, or with solitary confinement being used as a punishment for noncompliance.
In Arizona a farmer could call the warden,tell what the job is and the warden would send prisoners to that farm to work. Chain gangs was a good idea and prisoners paid for their crimes. Also if a prisoner refused to work they had a punishment for them, was called the pool.
So who gets paid and where does the money go? Is the job done for free? Perhaps it's done at a discount with some kickbacks for the warden?
From a prisoner's point of view, it would be good to see labor done directly reducing the state's costs for their incarceration. Of course they're going to be pissed if it looks like they're working to expand the warden's collection of sports cars, or otherwise enriching some asshole with the right connections.
Guess prisoner should sleep on silk sheets, have steak tartare with Cheval Blanc 1947 for lunch and Ribeye stea for dinner. Fuck criminals and bring back the chain gangs.