Slavery in American Prison Systems
By: Riley Duignan
Any American who knows anything about American history will know that 90% of it is not considered a bright past. Slavery was only constitutionally outlawed in 1865, which is only roughly around 160 years ago. Not long in the long run, right?
Incarcerated people are often put into forced labor inside of their prison, being paid little to none. Sounds similar, right? The system of slavery has been used as early as 1500. British colonizers had traveled over to American lands in search for freedom, yet began to use slavery to help grow their farms and trading access in the infancy of the colonies. In 1501, the system of the transatlantic slave trade was used. It kidnapped and trafficked African men, women, and children and brought them over to the Americans and parts of Europe. By the time it was abolished in 1867, around 13 million African people had been kidnapped, enslaved, tortured, and abused, especially in the United States.
After the civil war ended in 1865, the 3 new amendments were ratified, one of them being the 13th amendment. The 13th amendment had formerly abolished slavery in the United States. But, did it fully?
“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.” (United States Constitution, Thirteenth Amendment: Section 1). The Thirteenth Amendment did not fully abolish slavery. In actuality, it made it legal for the system of slavery to be used on a party who has been convicted and punishment is being determined. This is seen being utilized by prisons against the incarcerated.
Prisoners are expected to work and do labor beneficial to the prisons or government. This involves anything from institutional maintenance to service tasks and agriculture. Yet, multiple worker protection rights are not granted to prison workers. These include protection from discrimination, overtime pay, wage bargaining, and workplace conditions.
Putting prisoners to work or to do labor is called penal punishment, a type of punishment practice commonly seen in American prisons. But, there is a fine line between this staying just as normal work and becoming like slave labor. Slave labor is defined as “labor that is coerced and inadequetly rewarded, or the people who perform such labor”.
Prisoners also get paid way under the average federal minimum wage. While some think that it is appropriate for prisoners to get little to no pay, others disagree and argue that if they do the labor, they should get the pay. This is a whole other topic, as it becomes a moral dilemma. The federal minimum wage is $7.25, and on average, prisoners get paid 20 cents an hour, according to epi.org. Thus, some prison labor is slave labor.
As mentioned earlier, this same topic becomes a dilemma, so we may have to ask ourselves the difficult question. Is it okay for those who have broken moral standards or the law to be punished by an immoral and unjust system of punishment?
Sources
Forced prison labor in the “Land of the Free”: Rooted in Racism and Economic Exploitation: Spotlight
https://eji.org/reports/transatlantic-slave-trade-overview/#:~:text=Between%201501%20and%201867%2C%20nearly,homes%2C%20families%2C%20and%20cultures.
https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/13th-amendment#:~:text=13th%20Amendment%20to%20the%20U.S.,Slavery%20(1865)%20%7C%20National%20Archives