PRISON LABOR
Did you know slavery and involuntary servitude is still legal in the United States? The 13th Amendment of the US Constitution aimed to abolish slavery, but in reality, the amendment allowed slavery to remain legal. The “Exception Clause”, also known as the Punishment Clause, makes it possible for slavery to be used as a method of punishment, allowing the government to legally subject people incarcerated across the United States to forced labor.
Read more about the issue below, then take action by clicking on the button and joining Freedom United's Amend the 13th campaign.
June 3, 2025
Juneteenth, the day the U.S. celebrates the ending of slavery, is just around the corner. But the celebration always rings …
June 11, 2025
The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving the GEO Group, a $3.8bn company contracted to provide …
January 31, 2025
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the U.S. with one exception. Slavery is still allowed as punishment for a crime …
April 18, 2025
A renewed effort to end prison slavery in Arkansas has failed to advance—again. On April 4, Arkansas House Bill 1002 …
January 10, 2025
As wildfires cause devastation across California, many are praising the brave wildfire workforce on the front lines battling the flames. …
November 11, 2024
Nevada has become the latest state to abolish forced labor and involuntary servitude as criminal punishments, voting on Tuesday to …
November 1, 2024
With California and Nevada on the brink of voting to ban involuntary servitude, we sit down with Katharine Bryant of …
November 1, 2024
Nicholas’s life in the California prison system was dictated by forced labor. Sick or not, he was required to report …
August 14, 2024
A growing number of US states are seeking to close what critics call a loophole in the 13th amendment, which …
July 8, 2024
In November 2024, California voters will determine whether to eliminate forced labor, including in state prisons. Assembly Constitutional Amendment …
June 28, 2024
Florida’s prison system, the third largest in the U.S., relies heavily on forced labor to keep its facilities running and …
June 21, 2024
Americans observed Juneteenth this past week – a celebration of the end of slavery in 1865. But how can slavery …
May 24, 2024
“I could hear ‘crunch, crunch, crunch. I couldn’t feel anything, but I could hear the crunch.” Blas Sanchez’s harrowing ordeal …
May 13, 2024
Watch Freedom United’s event with a brilliant panel of activists discussing forced prison labor in the U.S. For the first …
April 16, 2024
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1865 at the conclusion of the Civil War, abolished slavery …
March 27, 2024
“I earned 16 cents an hour working in the basement of Auburn Correctional Facility using heavy machinery to make the …
March 27, 2024
Trafficking in Persons into Forced Criminality in Online Scamming Centers in Southeast Asia Testimonies from the Report: Nasim Nasim*, a …
February 20, 2024
This report comes roughly a year after we published our first report, in November 2022, on the existence of forced …
February 9, 2024
Governments can’t afford to undo slavery in prisons. At least, that’s what we’ve been hearing for years. But maybe they …
February 9, 2024
Executive Summary To the surprise of many, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution includes an exception to the abolition …
February 2, 2024
A comprehensive two-year investigation by The Associated Press unravels intricate, invisible webs connecting some of the world’s largest food companies …
January 26, 2024
The total jail and prison population in the United States has declined 21 percent since mass incarceration reached its peak level in …
January 15, 2024
A group of current and former prisoners sued Alabama on Tuesday, saying that the state’s system of prison labor is …
December 15, 2023
After 12 years, I was released with $40 and a bus ticket. The state did not even give me an …
May 31, 2023
The U.S. is 1 of only 17 countries in the world that uses state-imposed forced labor, a form of “modern …
May 31, 2023
An additional “tax” on commissary goods means incarcerated people are paying far more for staple items like peanut butter and …
May 31, 2023
For more than 150 years, the U.S. Constitution has relegated prisoners to a distinct underclass that allows us to be …
March 16, 2023
Research by advocates documents harsh conditions and unfair practices for incarcerated workers throughout the US prison system. It took Johnny …
February 7, 2023
Forward Each year, a matrix of private corporations generate $80 billion in revenue by exploiting incarcerated people and their support …
February 3, 2023
On February 1, 1865 Abraham Lincoln signed a joint House and Senate resolution that would later be ratified as the …
February 3, 2023
An inmate serving a jail sentence rests his hand on a fence. REUTERS/Joshua Lott A recent U.S. Justice Department report …
January 30, 2023
The 13th Amendment is the legislation that “ended” legal slavery in the U.S., it reads “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, …
January 23, 2023
Out of five states that put measures to voters on the subject, Louisiana voters were the only ones to vote …
January 23, 2023
Rep. Merika Coleman, the Birmingham Democrat who spearheaded Alabama’s new state constitution, said she’s tired of the South’s national image. …
January 23, 2023
On Election Day at the Martin Luther King Elementary School in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, on November …
November 10, 2022
Voters in four states have approved ballot measures that will change their state constitutions to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude …
October 24, 2022
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — More than 150 years after slaves were freed in the U.S., voters in five states will …
October 15, 2022
People incarcerated in the Alabama prison system began striking Monday over what they’ve described as inhumane treatment. Organizers say thousands have participated in the …
October 15, 2022
On September 7, 2022, after many attempted delays from the City of Susanville, California, a Lassen County judge ruled in …
October 2, 2022
Companies across the South profited off the forced labor of people in prison after the Civil War – a racist …
September 30, 2022
A committee studying racism in the Alabama Constitution gave tacit approval Wednesday to a plan to remove language on school …
September 27, 2022
A nationwide movement hopes to close the ‘slavery loophole’ that enables the exploitation of 800,000 prisoners in the US When …
September 27, 2022
The Tennessee House has approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would change the state constitution’s wording to allow for prisoners …
September 27, 2022
As the Nov. 8 general election approaches, advocates from around the country have pointed to Vermont’s Proposal 2 — which, …
September 27, 2022
Oregon’s Measure 112 The Legislature referred Measure 112 on slavery and servitude to the November ballot. The statewide measure would …
September 27, 2022
A state lawmaker said Wednesday that slavery is alive and well in Louisiana’s prison system and put forward legislation that …
September 23, 2022
In his 10 years behind bars, Dorsey Nunn says he was an inmate and a slave because he was forced …
July 25, 2022
Originally aired in 2019 John Oliver explains how prisoners make and spend money, and how companies can profit at the …
July 14, 2022
Image by Javad Esmaeili licensed under the Unsplash License. Note: I have been using the term “incarcerated people” throughout my column (as opposed …
June 29, 2022
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A proposal aimed at removing the last remnant of slavery from California law failed to pass …
June 23, 2022
Executive Summary Our nation incarcerates over 1.2 million people in state and federal prisons, and two out of three of …
June 18, 2022
Despite producing nearly $11 billion worth of goods and services each year, incarcerated workers in the U.S. earn an average …
July 25, 2022
Original Publication in 2015 Executive Summary Each year, the United States spends $80 billion1 to lock away more than 2.4 …
June 6, 2022
Outside prison gates in Yangon, Myanmar Executive Summary This executive summary includes extracts from the full report published in English. …
January 4, 2022
“Prison labor is slave labor. Pass the #AbolitionAmendment.” Congressional Democrats on Monday marked the 156th anniversary of the ratification of the 13th …
January 27, 2022
The 13th Amendment is having a moment of reckoning. Considered one of the crowning achievements of American democracy, the Civil …
February 2, 2022
It is 2022 and slavery and involuntary servitude is still legal in the United States. Passed by Congress on January …
January 17, 2022
When many people think of prison labor, they get an image in their head of convicts stamping license plates for pennies an hour. …
December 31, 2021
Two dozen conspirators forced workers to pay fees for travel and housing while forcing them to work for little to …
January 28, 2022
Curtis Ray Davis II was wrongly convicted of murder. He served nearly 26 years in Louisiana’s Angola State Prison before …
January 28, 2022
Ancient Mogilev, a former city of the medieval Duchy of Lithuania and now part of Belarus close to the border …
January 28, 2022
The state of Florida allows for unpaid prison labor, but that could change if a Tampa-based Democratic lawmaker’s joint resolution …
January 28, 2022
In May 2018 after an exhaustive one and a half years of investigative research on prison labor, I published a …
March 10, 2021
Efforts by States to Eliminate the Exception Allowing Slavery or Involuntary Servitude as Punishment for a Crime The Thirteenth Amendment ...
September 25, 2017
Within the debate of penal labor, one commonly ignored aspect is the use of labor in contract facilities, also known …
January 19, 2021
Around the country, correctional industries are quietly furnishing our public universities with beds, desks, bookshelves, and more. These businesses, born …
January 26, 2021
Public universities are much more likely to buy goods made by incarcerated people because they can (and are sometimes required …
September 29, 2020
As the world contends with the coronavirus, and the United States reckons with systemic racism, the West Coast is being …
February 11, 2020
This is the first in a three-part blog series authored by Polaris to introduce the issue. Read part two here, …
February 25, 2020
Most people assume that in 1865 with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment slavery in the United States was abolished. However, forced labor still exists in the United States today through the exception built into the Thirteenth Amendment for those who have been “duly convicted of a crime”. This exception made it legal and permissible to continue slavery within prisons in the United States. This is commonly known now as prison labor.
May 5, 2020
This is the final part in a three-part blog series authored by Polaris to introduce the issue. The first two …