Gulag’s name means force labor camp, but there is a lot more context to it than that. A gulag is less about labor and conditions and more about it being a hole in the ground at an undisclosed location where people go in and never come out. People that the soviets put in Gulags were sometimes criminals, but they were prosecuted by secret courts after being arrested by secret police during the World War Era and until about 1961.

Of course the USA absolutely has its fair share of dirty laundry, around the same timeframe they were prosecuting crimes for “Black Laws” and sending them to mines.

I think that in this regard both countries have made a lot of progress but still have a long ways to go. Also Russia is worse.