American Prison Labor and the 13th Amendment
Slavery in the United States supposedly stopped with the Emancipation Proclamation.
This was the declaration on January 1st, 1863 that freed all of the slaves held in the rebel Southern states. This was put forth in the middle of the American Civil War, and it was enacted as a means of causing conflict within the ranks. Suddenly, Confederate slaves saw a ray of hope; if they escaped to the Union North, they would be freed.
It was, in essence, a war tactic meant to cause disruption behind enemy lines.
It would be another two years before the official signing of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution which ended slavery in all States, in perpetuity. Sort of.
There was a big, glaring issue with the 13th, as it turns out. See if you can spot it in the text:
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. – 13th Amendment, United States Constitution
"Except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted."
Meaning, if you're convicted of a crime, any crime at all, you are fair game. You are available for mandatory labor under United States law.
Prison is a for-profit system in America, and business is very much booming. The Land of the Free boasts a prison population of well over a million people. At end-of-year in 2022, the number of incarcerated people was a harrowing 1,230,100.
It's closer to 2 million now, in 2024. Naturally, due to systemtic racism in the criminal justice system, people of color are vastly overrepresented.
And that number doesn't even tell you the whole story; that only accounts for people in prison, not for those who are detained in other forms. Pre-trial detainees who can't place bail, migrants detained at the border or people otherwise remanded into custody are not counted.
If you do count them, the numbers shot to well over 2.4 million in 2022, and considerably higher now.
Check out this PDF provided by the International Center for Prison Studies.
A keen eye will notice this statistic included in the above document: "The United States has the highest prison population rate in the world, 716 per 100,000 of the national population."
That's alarming. A huge proportion of the world's prison population is incarcerated in the United States, about 20% according to the ACLU.
Despite making up close to 5% of the global population, the U.S. has more than 20% of the world’s prison population. Since 1970, our incarcerated population has increased by 500% – 2 million people in jail and prison today, far outpacing population growth and crime. – Mass Incarceration, American Civil Liberties Union
Pay attention to that statistic. 20% of the world's prisoners, and less than 5% of the world's total population.
That number is actually down from the oft-cited 25% of a few years past. I suspect that's due to global conflict.
Why are there so many prisoners in America? Well, for starters, their prison system is a hellish nightmare that practically ensures that criminals are never rehabilitated and will often reoffend.
They create a vicious cycle of abuse and stigma that breaks people's mental health and locks them out of participating in society.
Felons struggle to find work, housing, and assistance. In some states they can't even vote; they're prohibited from even engaging in democracy in spite of the fact that they're full citizens of the United States.
America focuses on retribution and punishment. Their recidivism rate is astronomical, especially when compared to judicial systems like you find in Norway, which focus on rehabilitation and returning offenders to normal life.
Norway has some of the lowest recidivism rates in the world, so clearly their system is working beautifully.
The other reason that America's prison population is so high, is because of what I said earlier: theirs is a for-profit system.
Private prisons are a huge industry in America, accounting for over 8% of the prisoner population. These prisons profit by the numbers, and they love to donate to the campaigns of elected judges to ensure harsher sentencing and more time spent behind their bars.
Even when prisoners aren't housed in private prisons, they're used for profit. Prisoners have to pay for the amenities they want while they stay behind bars. You want more soap for the showers? Pay for it. Reading material? Pay for it.
And they're paying higher rates than those of us on the outside, too.
Prisoners are even made to keep the place running, working in the lunch lines or cleaning services within the prisons they're incarcerated in.
And then, there's the 13th Amendment rearing its ugly, misguided head. Because prisoners are convicted of a crime, they are available for slave labor. Major corporations use obscenely low-paid prison labor to construct many of their products and make a ridiculous profit off of their work.
And then the prison takes a portion of their less-than-a-dollar-an-hour pay off the top. You know, to cover the expense of keeping them alive behind bars.
It's not just production line work, either. Inmates make up 30% of California's firefighting force, and they're made to risk their lives during wildfire season every year.
If they refuse to go out and face the danger, they risk being put into solitary confinement until they agree. As I've written about before, solitary confinement is a heinous form of torture that virtually guarantees severe damage to your mental health.
This has a massive impact on the American economy, as well as to American taxpayers. Since State prisons use taxpayer money, your average American citizen is essentially subsidizing the labor costs for major corporations.
All of this basically means that while we think of the 13th Amendment as the end of slavery in America, this is a bold-faced lie.
Slavery didn't go anywhere. It just changed its aesthetic from chattel chains to standard issue handcuffs instead.
Now, I like to end the month with a creator highlight when applicable. On the subject of slave labor in the United States, there's one name that leaps to the front of my mind.
I first learned about America's history of prison labor via a documentary created by Ava DuVernay. Her work shines a light on slavery in the modern-day by showing the statistics and the reality of forced labor in America today.
She does a phenomenal job of illustrating how racism plays a large role in the North American slave economy.
Ava's work is amazing, and she is a powerful voice in the battle for human rights. Her documentary, 13th, is a stunning and emotional creation that will knock you off your feet and bring you to tears.
To Netflix's credit, they have uploaded the entire documentary to YouTube for free viewing even if you don't have a Netflix account. That is how important this documentary is. Frankly, it should be assigned viewing in American history curricula across the country.
Absolutely everyone should watch it and internalize the message that it presents.
Ava DuVernay is currently working on a project revolving around the Democratic National Convention, and I look forward to seeing her coverage in the future.
She deserves to be a household name.
Solidarity wins.
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