If you were to learn that slavery has not been completely abolished legally in the United States, would you be surprised? The exception clause embedded into the Thirteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, called the “Punishment Clause” allows forms modern day slavery to continue to this day. The thirteenth amendment abolished slavery with this exception:
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction”
This Punishment Clause came after the Civil War and in the context of Southern states creating new criminal laws that targeted those newly freed from slavery. Examples of these laws that targeted people of color include vagrancy laws, the black codes in Alabama, and practices that allowed for leasing and renting of the incarcerated for work by various industries. Professor Whitney Benns, explains the infamous Angola Prison system in Louisiana this way, “Angola’s farm operations and other similar prison industries have ancestral roots in the black cattle slavery of the South. Specifically the proliferation of prison labor camps grew during the Reconstruction era following the Civil War, a time when southern states established large prisons throughout the region that they quickly filled, primarily with black men.”(2).
The Punishment Clause continues exploiting and justifying forms of forced labor particularly targeting African Americans and other marginalized groups to this present day. This system of legal slavery has exploited people working under harsh conditions for little or no pay continuing the legacy of human rights abuses, and oppression. The Associated Press conducted a two year investigation that found that prison farms have supplied million of dollars worth of crops to massive global companies like Tyson Food, Louis Dreyfus, Consolidated Grain and Barge and Riceland Foods. These goods end up in supply chains with popular foods we consume like Cereal companies and Soda and other food products.(2). In September the AP reported that a class actions lawsuit was filed by prisoners who were forced to work in the extremely hot weather picking crop by hand on a former slave plantation at Louisiana State Penitentiary. Racial disporportionality continues to be evident in the problem of the mass incarceration of people of color. It should also be recognized that all prisoners deserve to be treated with the dignity and respect of their value as human beings. Even if incarcerated, all prisoners still retain the human rights fundamental to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The “Punishment Clause” continues to benefits state and federal government and corporations through the preservation of slavery through this loop hole. Black and Latinx people continue to be incarcerated at disproportional levels and continues to exploit through this system which reaps profits. During the height of the covid pandemic, incarcerated people have sewed Covid-19 masks or made hand sanitizer for little or no pay, have put out dangerous wildfires for less than two dollars a day, or provide cheap labor for fortune 500 companies.(3) This is why the Presbyterian Church (USA) in our 2024 General Assembly has issued a call to bring attention to this important issue. Joint resolutions have been introduced in the United States Senate (SJR33) and the United States House of Representatives (HJR 72) which if passed would amend our constitution to abolish the Punishment Clause. In the words of the Overture presented at the General Assembly, “as followers of Jesus Christ, with a desire and intent to ensure that the scourge of modern slavery in all its forms is eradicated from the United States”…we encourage the abolish of this exception clause. The Punishment Clause continues to be a stain on our nation’s history and a barrier to justice and equity, this is just one way that we might begin to dismantle the systems in our country that perpetuate abuse and exploitation and work towards God’s kingdom of peace and justice.
2. Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review p57
https://journals.law.harvard.edu/crcl/wp-content/uploads/sites/80/2022/09/ThirteenthAmendmentPunishmentClause.pdf
3. Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review p112
