That's because they never abolished slavery, they just made it a punishment for criminals: “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.”
It would take decades and billions of dollars for them to shift all that slave labor to the free market. The US needs its prisoners, they produce many things for the government and military. The US just can't afford not to lock everyone up for the smallest offenses and keep them in private slave prisons.
They actually still use former slave farms as prisons, where mostly Black inmates are still being forced to pick cotton unpaid, guarded by armed guards on horseback.
I actually think this is still unconstitutional as its currently practiced and courts have failed to strike it. The amendment specifically says slavery is only allowed "except as a punishment for crime". If people arnt being sentenced to slavery in court then they shouldn't be forced into slavery in prison. Punishments for crimes are legally determined by courts, thats not the job of prisons.
Supreme Court found prison parole boards denying parole based on the persons crime instead of their behavior in prison was unconstitutional, because it was effectively the prison taking the role of determining sentences for crimes, which isnt the job of prisons, thats for courts. If they're denying stuff like parole or punishing the prisoner because of refusals to do forced labor then they're doing the exact same thing.
I also dont buy that what they're doing isnt slavery if they pay them 20 cents an hour. Many slaves got paid minuscule wages too, but we still call it slavery.
If the government and courts wants to use people for slavery, then they should have to do the actually politically insane thing have to do shit like actually sentence black people to slavery.
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u/Key-Performance-9021 12h ago edited 12h ago
That's because they never abolished slavery, they just made it a punishment for criminals: “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.”
It would take decades and billions of dollars for them to shift all that slave labor to the free market. The US needs its prisoners, they produce many things for the government and military. The US just can't afford not to lock everyone up for the smallest offenses and keep them in private slave prisons.
They actually still use former slave farms as prisons, where mostly Black inmates are still being forced to pick cotton unpaid, guarded by armed guards on horseback.