Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you read The Gulag Archipelago? If not you should, it tells you a lot about Soviet prisons and a lot of other things Soviet you might do well learning about. Read it, it is well-written and - at least in my opinion - quite the page-turner. If you don't think you can manage to make your way through consider listening to an (unabridged) audio book version.
Yes, Soljenitzin is not a revolutionary new thing nobody has heard from. Conditions in gulags were fucking dreadful, the same way conditions post any revolution when it came to repressing those who would put down a revolution would be: american prisons post reovlution weren't better, french prisons post revolution weren't better, etc: every single revolution has pretty much ended with a period of terror, and Lenin's…
Your claim of those camps being 'work camps, though not death camps' make me suspect you did not read The GULAG Archipelago since some camps in effect served both roles for political prisoners by setting rations, work schedules and prisoner amenities like clothing to such levels that they were almost assured to lead to death. That last line about Soviet prisoners having it better than American ones since they would 'come out of it and probably have a house at least' is just laughable and shows you're parroting Howard Zinn or some other propagandist. Read a book, read another one, read some real history.