Question

The 13th amendment abolished slavery, with one exception. Describe what this exception and how it has lead to Mass Incarceration.?

Answer 1

• The 13th Amendment was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865. It formally abolished slavery but left in place an exception, known as the punishment clause, which allows slavery or involuntary servitude if for the punishment of a crime.
• Section 1 of Amendment 13 states "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."
• The Thirteenth Amendment made slavery and involuntary servitude unconstitutional in the United States “except as punishment for crime.” As the end of slavery left a void in the Southern labor market, the criminal justice system became one of the primary means of continuing the legalized involuntary servitude of African Americans.
• Scholars, activists and prisoners have linked that exception clause to the rise of a prison system that incarcerates black people at more than five times the rate of white people, and profits off of their unpaid or underpaid labor.
• Initially, states passed discriminatory laws to arrest and imprison large numbers of black people, then leased prisoners to private individuals and corporations in a system of convict leasing that resulted in dangerous conditions, abuse, and death.
• While states profited, prisoners earned no pay and faced inhumane, hazardous, and often deadly work conditions. Thousands of black people were forced into a brutal system that historians have called “worse than slavery.”
• After the Civil War, new offenses like “malicious mischief” were vague, and could be a felony or misdemeanor depending on the supposed severity of behavior. These laws sent more black people to prison than ever before, and by the late 19th century the country experienced its first “prison boom.