The birthright of a slaveholding nation is generational trauma

Did you know that the United States prison system in 2023 utilizes forced labor for both commercial and governmental corporations?¹

In fact every year prisoners produce $2 billion worth in goods and $9 billion worth in services². While they are compensated at rates far below the federal minimum wage, or in some cases for nothing at all³.

This is possible due to a loophole in the 13th amendment of the US constitution:

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The civil war⁴ ended in 1865, since then, all other democratic nations of the world have had a complete ban on slavery in their constitutions. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights also specifically bans slavery as well⁵. In the US however, the exception in the 13th amendment is the justification to continue practicing slavery well into the 21st century. It is time the US caught up to the rest of the world took a stance against slavery in any form!

We cannot sit back and let corporations continue to profit off of this injustice. It is time for a new amendment to the US constitution which ends the exception and allows for prisoners to earn a living wage for their work.

Join a growing campaign to end this loophole once and for all

• Contact your local state and federal representatives and urge them to support a resolution to amend the constitution to end the exception for slavery as a punishment

Footnotes

1. Return to Now ↩

2. University of Chicago News ↩

3. University of Chicago Law School: pp. 57 ↩

4. Was the civil war about slavery? ↩

5. United Nations: article 4 ↩