Slavery is on the ballot for US voters in five states in push against 13th Amendment loophole
- Voters in Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont will decided whether to close legal loopholes related to prison labour enslavement
- Nearly 20 US states have constitutions that include language permitting slavery and involuntary servitude as criminal punishments
More than 150 years after slaves were freed in the US, voters in five states will soon decide whether to close loopholes that led to the proliferation of a different form of slavery – forced labour by people convicted of certain crimes.
None of the proposals would force immediate changes inside the states’ prisons, though they could lead to legal challenges related to how they use prison labour, a lasting imprint of slavery’s legacy on the entire United States.
The effort is part of a national push to amend the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution that banned enslavement or involuntary servitude except as a form of criminal punishment. That exception has long permitted the exploitation of labour by convicted felons.
“The idea that you could ever finish the sentence ‘slavery’s OK when … ’ has to rip out your soul, and I think it’s what makes this a fight that ignores political lines and brings us together, because it feels so clear,” said Bianca Tylek, executive director of Worth Rises, a criminal justice advocacy group pushing to remove the amendment’s convict labour clause.
Nearly 20 states have constitutions that include language permitting slavery and involuntary servitude as criminal punishments. In 2018, Colorado was the first to remove the language from its founding frameworks by ballot measure, followed by Nebraska and Utah two years later.
