1. Yes. If it's clear that the context is about a prison sentence, there is no need to state it explicitly.
2. No.
'Strive for their rights' doesn't collocate. (Yes, I know there's a song with that name, but it still isn't a phrase that works). You strive for something which is an ultimate goal, such as 'greatness'. 'Fight for', 'assert', 'protect' or 'defend' are all verbs which collocate with 'rights'.
Also, 'taxed for heavy rents' doesn't work. Taxes aren't the same as rents, 'for' is the wrong preposition, and 'heavy' doesn't collocate with 'rents'. You could rephrase this as '..whom the landlords charged high rents' or '..on whom the landlords imposed high rents.'
3. No. It should be 'experience', because this is an uncountable noun in this context. One's cumulative work experience is different from the countable version of the noun. The countable version refers to single event which a person has experienced, and can be plural - for example, 'I had many interesting experiences.' This is not the same meaning as 'work experience.'