On a Slavery Situation

Slavery in the fictional country story takes place Hirland (might change later ;)), is legal, although rare. Slaves are expensive, and people can rarely afford an up-front cost of buying the contract.
Slaves have legal protections, and can't be killed without consequence, as well as heavily mistreated. However Judges will routinely set low monetary damages as a compensation if the owner "damages" the ****. It's very rare for the owner to do time, and even rarer be sentenced for slavery for abusing or killing a ****, however those situations do happen occasionally.

There are following major ways to acquire a ****:

1. Non-violent criminals can willingly enrol into servitude, instead of being sentenced for work camps. This includes debtors.
2. Violent criminals can also be recruited as slaves, including against their will.
3. Acquire a **** abroad and bring him/her over - those slaves do not have release date, and enjoy least amount of legal protection.
4. Sign a slavery contract - this is the most similar to the old indentured servitude contracts.

In the past war prisoners who were not exchanged or paid ransom were also turned into slaves, however the practice was extinguished in the recent decades. Mostly because the region became more peaceful.

Most of the slaves do not need to be **** to stay with their owner. They will work hard to earn their freedom, as such all it's needed is a contract and a **** tag, which can take multiple forms.

Of course there are more rebellious/less fortunate slaves, those can be controlled and branded in multiple ways. From tattoos, brands, scarification, to high-tech shock collars, and trackers.