@PhantomStarlight Well, I suppose it's more of a "No no, he took us inside to talk privately, and then had and indigestion because of the 3 dangos he ate. We didn't do anything.". They did say that they would get limbs cut off if they fought back, but they didn't see them fight back.
I suppose there's some kind of minimal law for the guards, like they don't have the right to hurt the prisoners without a reason, like the prisoner breaking a rule (like talking back, being in the way, or some unreasonable other one), and can only cut a prisoner's limbs off if he fought back, so if they know he fought back. Otherwise, being bandits, they would abuse to much of it and kill or incapacitate to many prisoners, which would drastically slow down the work.