A growing number of US states are seeking to close what critics call a loophole in the 13th amendment, which abolished slavery but still in effect legalises involuntary servitude as punishment for convicts.

The constitutional amendment, passed in 1865, abolished slavery except as punishment for crimes.

Voters in California and Nevada will have a chance to weigh in during November’s elections on whether to extend the ban to prisoners – following more than half a dozen other states that are part of the burgeoning movement.

“It’s one of the things from the civil rights era that we’re still fighting on and that needs to be changed,” said Christopher Blackwell, an incarcerated person in Washington state who writes about and advocates for prison reform.

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