Student Claims That An Exception In The 13th Amendment Still Permits Slavery If You’re Convicted, Posts Brutal Examples
Recently, a Michigan State University student started a twitter thread about an important issue within the American incarceration system. Turns out, the legality of slavery is still up for debate even over a hundred and fifty years after the end of the Civil War. Though the U.S. Constitution was amended to prohibit both slavery and involuntary servitude within the country, it left a loophole to potentially exploit people who are convicted of crimes, roughly 2.3 million Americans.
Image credits: ghoulnextdoor
The 13th Amendment reads “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.” And according to Duke’s Undergraduate Law Magazine, this exception makes it clear that incarcerated persons don’t have constitutional rights under the 13th Amendment – they can be compelled to work for as little as $1 an hour.
“What we see after the passage of the 13th Amendment is a couple of different things converging,” Andrea Armstrong, a law professor at Loyola University in New Orleans, told HISTORY. “First, the 13th Amendment text allows for involuntary servitude where convicted of a crime.” At the same time, “black codes” in the south created “new types of offenses, especially attitudinal offenses—not showing proper respect, those types of things.”
Armstrong argues that the 13th Amendment makes an exception for “involuntary servitude,” not “slavery,” and that there are important historical and legal distinctions between the two. However, she says no court has formally dealt with this distinction, and many courts have used to two terms interchangeably. In 1871, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that a convicted person was “a slave of the State.”
This form of coerced prison labor has its roots in one of the most exploitative labor systems known in American history – the convict lease system. Effectively, states who claimed they were too poor to maintain state convicts within prison walls were allowed to contract their prisoners out to private businesses, planters, and industrialists. Leasing businesses cut down on labor costs; prisons received a handsome profit, and prisoners are forcibly exploited under abusive conditions.
In The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander explains how a system of Jim Crow replaced slavery and later how a system of mass incarceration rose to replace Jim Crow. During the Reconstruction era, Southern states quickly took advantage of the 13th Amendment’s slavery loophole by arresting Black people for minor crimes such as unemployment, loitering or gambling, and selling them to private employers through the convict lease system.
Image credits: ghoulnextdoor
Even though convict leasing was formally abolished by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941, its impacts still linger in prison labor programs today. Because of the 13th Amendment’s exclusion, incarcerated persons still lack a constitutional right to be free of forced servitude. Thus, private prisons some states are legally allowed to capitalize on this using coerced prison labor as a way to minimize costs and maximize profits for its shareholders. Surprisingly, prisoners can even be forced to work under threat of punishment, such as solitary confinement and revocation of family visitation rights.
Image credits: ghoulnextdoor
“[States] would not be able to incarcerate as many people as they do without this, in effect, a subsidy of the cost,” Armstrong said. “So it masks the true nature, the true cost of incarceration.”
The average wage per hour for incarcerated workers in non-industry jobs ranged from a low of $0.14 to a high of $0.63, while it ranged from a low of $0.33 to a high of $1.41 in correctional industries. But unlike other workers, U.S. prison laborers aren’t granted protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act and National Relations Act. Thus, private prisons are able to continue exploiting their inmates under unfair practices for profit.
Image credits: ghoulnextdoor
It’s important to note that after it became widely known, Whole Foods Market has stopped sourcing foods that are produced using prison labor.
Image credits: ghoulnextdoor
Image credits: ghoulnextdoor
In 1995, the National Institute of Justice released a study that confirmed garment manufacturer Third Generation contracted sewing work in the early ’90s to a prison through a deal with South Carolina Correctional Industries. Victoria’s Secret, along with other companies, ended up buying the apparel through Third Generation. However, Victoria’s Secret quickly ended that practice — Third Generation ended its contract with the prison by the mid-1990s.
Image credits: ghoulnextdoor
People had a lot to say about this issue
Coming from an outsider, the prison system in America seems extremely F'd up. As does the entire American 'Justice' system. I honestly can't think of a bigger paradox than America claiming to be land of the free while this sh*t goes on daily, on purpose. Everything about america is just a massive lie and contradiction. E.g. they often claim to be for free market economies etc. and demonize Russia for supposed communism, and yet America has protectionist tariffs falling out of every orifice. The American Dream is a con job, a horror film. America is a lie, it's a sham, it's the worst place in the world.
Inmates are typically paid less than minimum because The State ie. the American people, pay to house and feed them throughout their incarceration. If prisons had to start paying minimum wage to each inmate, they'd go bankrupt overnight. Who would be responsible for picking up the slack? Every last tax paying American. Jobs (even menial ones) give purpose to life. Working as a team with a common goal creates a sense of belonging and it builds self esteem. Lastly, prison isn't meant to be a walk in the park. It isn't meant to imitate real life. The current wage inmates receive could definitely see an increase but do they deserve to earn the same as your local law abiding Starbucks barista? Absolutely not. (My views as a Canadian)
Load More Replies...This isnt really a groundbreaking discovery. The 13th amendment makes no subtlety of this. Clearly states no slavery except as punishment for crime. Why did it take until college to notice this?
As far as I know, prisoners work for very very low wages, but do so voluntarily to make a little extra money to buy something from the commissary or to simply have a change from the monotony of being in a cell.
They get to do so voluntarily when the choice is given based on good behavior. Violent criminals who cant be in the same room with others without trying to shiv someone dont get the choice of work programs. At county jail where my mother worked, really good inmates were allowed out for janitorial work around the offices and it would count as time served, but they were also petty offenders, not violent.
Load More Replies...The over-simplicity of your response is painful, and should be embarrassing to you. You give complete carte blanche to private prisons who give incentives for people to be jailed - people who would not be jailed under other systems - and your response is a banal "good"? How is this "paying off their debt to society"? How do YOU benefit when the factories close because instead of paying people minimum wage they can pay prisoners a pittance? How do YOU benefit when the CEOs of those huge companies rake in money and the costs of items are skewed because of artificially cheap labour? How does anyone benefit?
Load More Replies...Not sure how I feel about this. I'm fairly certain that prisoners volunteer for the opportunity to work at a crappie wage. I would prefer to work while in prison over setting around in a cell all day and night. However I definitely believe companies who use prison labor should be forced to clearly state on the packaging that they use prison labor.
But they committed crimes..... I'd rather work in jail than be bored tbh
But they shouldn't be working for less than minimum wage or unsafe conditions. These big corporates are saying that they have to raise the prices on everything because of whatever reasons. In reality they are just too damn greedy. I agree that they did do the crime but in some instants the punishment is far heavier and now we know why.
Load More Replies...Prison slave labor is part of the Prison-Industrial Complex. Lock up the poor for minor crimes, set their bail way too high for their families to pay (a blatant violation of the 8th Amendment to the US Constitution), railroad them through our "justice" system, then exploit them for nickels an hour so greedy companies don't have to pay employees even minimum wage. The idea that this work "teaches life skills" is horse puckey. When prisoners are released, their convictions are huge stigmas and often stand between them and any meaningful employment. So they have a choice: starve, or return to crime. The U.S. has a lot of systems that are broken and need to be fixed.
Not surprisingly, the US has the highest percentage of its population incarcerated of any country in the world, with longer, harsher sentences than in most other developed nations. Here is a Norwegian high-security prison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j72OTvfduBk and here is another must-see to follow up on that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuLQ4gqB5XE.
your comparison is fairly misleading. Not only does Norway have a much lower population than the US. per Wikipedia, Norways population was at 5.29 million at the start of 2018, where in July of 2018, the US passed 325 million. Further, Norway's gross per capita median income is 19,308 international dollars, compared to the US's 15,480. Sorry, but it's apples-to-oranges.
Load More Replies...I don't see the problem, don't commit crimes and you won't go to jail.
Here's a simple answer: don't commit a crime which gets you sent to jail.
Agreed. Yes, there are flaws in the system, but that doesn't mean the prison system is full of innocent people. Innocenceproject.com estimates there's about 20,000 falsely convicted people in prison. In 2016 there were 2.2 million people incarcerated. Even if you DOUBLE innocent projects estimates, that's still less than 2% that might be innocent. That leaves 98% of the incarcerated population that could eliminate the "problem" listed in this article just by NOT BREAKING THE LAW!!!! It's not that hard. There's 320 million other people in the US that managed it just fine in 2016.
Load More Replies...I've said it before and I'll say again, so many people go to prison for petty crimes so the prisons can continue to make money off their bodies. Many are kept there when they should have been released for the same reason. And the government colludes with all this.
This post is so annoying. I work in a federal corrections facility (in Canada), and thank goodness for that. I know how the systems runs here. I know how inmates are paid and what kind of work they do. With that in mind, something that is kind of similar is.. they don't make the same wages as people who are not incarcerated. And of course they wouldn't! Having inmates work IS part of their rehabilitation. They're taking life skills with them upon release. They may not be making a lot, but it's productive useful work. So maybe before you read something in a book or see something on TV, you actually learn from the source.
Let's give proper attribution to Michelle Alexander (her book and her Netflix documentary literally all about this-- Called The 13th), a black woman who backed it up with tons of evidence. This kid didn't think of it, but kudos to him for caring.
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. Getting 3 meals and a bed is not sufficient enough punishment.
This is a misleading article, because it all depends on the state. In many states each prison has a capacity to make products or provide service for the prison system. Not for profit, but to reduce costs to the state and to teach inmates a skillset. Some grow food, others make furniture, some process paperwork, others make clothing. As far as the judicial system works, it works just like everywhere else, the poor are prosecuted, the rich get off.
Good, they should be doing all the s**t jobs for free. Stamp those license plates, clean those highways, pick those damn potatoes!! You do the crime, you do the time! Maybe if prison wasn't a damn daycare then people would be more inclined to stay out of it. There should be no repeat offenders. Jail should be so bad that once you're out, you'll NEVER EVER want to go back in!! Reopen Alcatraz!!
License plates aren't stamped anymore. They're printed over a retro reflective coating. :\
Load More Replies...As the mother of an incarcerated person (non-violent non-drug involuntary crime), I can't begin to reply to most of these comments- People are so ignorant & uneducated about the truths of prison. Most do not have a choice to work, you do what you are told. Yes, they are fed & somewhat clothed but there are things they must pay for (shoes, sweatshirts, medication,doctor/eye glasses etc). If an inmate does not have a family to provide the extra funds they're considered indigent & provided with bare minimum. The food is not nutritious & many get sick from lack of fresh fruit,vegetables, constant hot dogs, baloney, etc. They do not get real "meat", except 2 holidays a year. I could go on & on. Do they need to pay for their crimes? YES! But in a humane way because they are human beings. The system does nothing to rehabilitate (especially for drugs, 75% are). It is proven that prisons that have therapy, job training, "humane" programs have less recidivism. US prisons are a damn mess!
So true my brother went to jail at 19 for non violent drug crime. Got out and went back for breach of probation (which i believe probation terms are quite ridiculous) While I agree that there is a debt to society to be paid it shouldnt go to private for-profit institutions. There incarceration system is so backwards and they wonder why they have such a high rate of recidivism
Load More Replies...I'm all for paying prisoners minimum wage. I'm also all for requiring them to pay room and board during their sentence.
If you committed a crime that put you in prison, you have forfeited your American rights by disrespecting the laws. Not to say so many of our laws ARE flawed but prisoners do not deserve to be paid while incarcerated and should have to provide free labor to their state/city in which the tax payers are paying for them to be in prison.
"...incarcerated persons don’t have constitutional rights under the 13th Amendment – they can be compelled to work for as little as $1 an hour." Where does the $1 figure come from? Later in the article much lower figures are quoted.
WTF. I don't see any problem with that kind of work. They're criminals. As long as they can voluntarily decide I'd they want to work for a dollar per hour I don't see a problem. Only thing I think is problematic, that inmates have to pay for every day objects in prisons.
The exploitation, abuse, and incarceration to make people rich should end, but if everything else is on the up-and-and, I see zero issue with requiring prisoners to work, even for $0. It costs a lot of money to house prisoners. Why shouldn't they work for their keep?
Because they are NOT provided with everything they need. One example is personal hygiene products. They pay for shampoo, soap, deoderant. They must purchase their own shoes. Average footwear cost there is $50. If they are paid $.50 an hour that's 2.5 weeks just for sneakers and they tons of other stuff they must buy from underwear, socks to medication. They should work or do something but the whole system is broken in US.
Load More Replies...Oh my gosh I remember learning about this in 8th grade and I was like "whaaaaa"
A loophole...... Maybe read up on a bit more history and you'll see it was all planned.
This is crazy but true. Another odd thing, my friend in prison who sewed clothes for Walmart received a W2 stating they paid him $8 an hour, yet he only received $0.75 an hour from the prison. Although that money went right back to the prison for phone/email, and basic needs like soap, toothpaste, & deodorant.
So anyone want to watch "Where to invade next?" (Norway episode), where Michael Moore went to Norway prison :D
That headline is b******t. The 13th Amendment does allow an exception. The student is absolutely right. It's not a claim. It's a fact.
This whole article is a big whine about how bad people are made to do good things for the satisfaction of doing good. THEY'RE IN PRISON THEY ARE NOT GOOD PEOPLE THEY DONT DESERVE WHAT FEW PENNIES THEY MAKE. Really, how dumb are you? These are rapists and murderers, child molesters. They DO NOT deserve good things, they deserve to rot!
Read who the private prisons who donate to: https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=G7000 Surprise, surprise! The so-called "Law and Order" party, that supports a leader who has admitted to obstructing justice, is by far the largest recipient.
If anyone saw the documentary 13th, it talks about this exact thing. What this kid found is not new
bruh imagine thinking that at least getting a job in prison for doing crimes in an unsafe condition is a loophole. Its called punishment and in reality things were way worse back in the day. Back in the day, they didn't get three meals a day or a roof under their head, so in a way, this is the best case scenario for those who have caused harm to society. and they're even getting paid.
Good idea in the USA. They are not the land of the free, they are the land of prisoners. First place on "inmates per capita" and also on "inmates". Not even China has as many people in prison. They are only on second place. Looks like the justice system is f****d up or that the USA are the worst country on this planet. I bet on my first guess. Oh, and based on inmates my home country is on place 28, on inmates per captia on place 172. Still our justice system is not perfect, but better.
Wtf... why could it even be wrong? It's not like they're normal, angel -like people, and are used by society - they tried to rob, deceive or maybe even murder somebody. And then they go to prison, where they are served everything right under their noses, not paying for anything - guess why - because society, people that were hurt by them(!), pays for it! Slavery? Good joke!!
In a way, the prisoners are doing/learning a skill and bring occupied. However, part of the wages paid to the prisons should be paid to the prisoners when they have ended their incarceration to help them get back on their feet when they get out. Having said all that, the 'Technicality' in the law should be reviewed as it is a travesty when you look at it from a Human Rights point of view.
So what, they're in prison for a reason, might as well make them useful
AKA the entire premise of Michelle Alexander's book (a Black woman) and the documentary on Netflix based off of her book and with her participation. (It's literally called The 13th). Let's give attribution where it's due.
And the inmates probably adore all the one on one time with the adorable little goats. It's a form of animal therapy and rehabilitation.
Load More Replies...I'm not against inmates working, but they should be paid more. In my country prisoners gets 1,31 dollars per hour (taxfree) and they work 6 hours. But here is the thing, they can also choose to study (even at university level) or get psychological treatment/rehab. Here we look upon prison sentences not as revenge, but as a care system designed to give the inmates the possibility to not turn back to crime once that they are out.
This makes a lot more sense to me. Rehabilitating inmates and providing them with basic life skills so that when they're released they have the tools to succeed rather than creating a revolving door.
Load More Replies...This isn't news at all. It's common practice. Frankly, they deserve slavery while they are incarcerated.
I hope you're joking... being compelled to pay back what you agreed owe is in no sense equivalent to being kept in bondage and having one's life owned and controlled by another. All you're describing above is poor money management and irresponsible indulgence.
Load More Replies...In USA there are plenty of people in prison because of very small crimes. In other countries they probably just would have to pay penalty.
Load More Replies...Coming from an outsider, the prison system in America seems extremely F'd up. As does the entire American 'Justice' system. I honestly can't think of a bigger paradox than America claiming to be land of the free while this sh*t goes on daily, on purpose. Everything about america is just a massive lie and contradiction. E.g. they often claim to be for free market economies etc. and demonize Russia for supposed communism, and yet America has protectionist tariffs falling out of every orifice. The American Dream is a con job, a horror film. America is a lie, it's a sham, it's the worst place in the world.
Inmates are typically paid less than minimum because The State ie. the American people, pay to house and feed them throughout their incarceration. If prisons had to start paying minimum wage to each inmate, they'd go bankrupt overnight. Who would be responsible for picking up the slack? Every last tax paying American. Jobs (even menial ones) give purpose to life. Working as a team with a common goal creates a sense of belonging and it builds self esteem. Lastly, prison isn't meant to be a walk in the park. It isn't meant to imitate real life. The current wage inmates receive could definitely see an increase but do they deserve to earn the same as your local law abiding Starbucks barista? Absolutely not. (My views as a Canadian)
Load More Replies...This isnt really a groundbreaking discovery. The 13th amendment makes no subtlety of this. Clearly states no slavery except as punishment for crime. Why did it take until college to notice this?
As far as I know, prisoners work for very very low wages, but do so voluntarily to make a little extra money to buy something from the commissary or to simply have a change from the monotony of being in a cell.
They get to do so voluntarily when the choice is given based on good behavior. Violent criminals who cant be in the same room with others without trying to shiv someone dont get the choice of work programs. At county jail where my mother worked, really good inmates were allowed out for janitorial work around the offices and it would count as time served, but they were also petty offenders, not violent.
Load More Replies...The over-simplicity of your response is painful, and should be embarrassing to you. You give complete carte blanche to private prisons who give incentives for people to be jailed - people who would not be jailed under other systems - and your response is a banal "good"? How is this "paying off their debt to society"? How do YOU benefit when the factories close because instead of paying people minimum wage they can pay prisoners a pittance? How do YOU benefit when the CEOs of those huge companies rake in money and the costs of items are skewed because of artificially cheap labour? How does anyone benefit?
Load More Replies...Not sure how I feel about this. I'm fairly certain that prisoners volunteer for the opportunity to work at a crappie wage. I would prefer to work while in prison over setting around in a cell all day and night. However I definitely believe companies who use prison labor should be forced to clearly state on the packaging that they use prison labor.
But they committed crimes..... I'd rather work in jail than be bored tbh
But they shouldn't be working for less than minimum wage or unsafe conditions. These big corporates are saying that they have to raise the prices on everything because of whatever reasons. In reality they are just too damn greedy. I agree that they did do the crime but in some instants the punishment is far heavier and now we know why.
Load More Replies...Prison slave labor is part of the Prison-Industrial Complex. Lock up the poor for minor crimes, set their bail way too high for their families to pay (a blatant violation of the 8th Amendment to the US Constitution), railroad them through our "justice" system, then exploit them for nickels an hour so greedy companies don't have to pay employees even minimum wage. The idea that this work "teaches life skills" is horse puckey. When prisoners are released, their convictions are huge stigmas and often stand between them and any meaningful employment. So they have a choice: starve, or return to crime. The U.S. has a lot of systems that are broken and need to be fixed.
Not surprisingly, the US has the highest percentage of its population incarcerated of any country in the world, with longer, harsher sentences than in most other developed nations. Here is a Norwegian high-security prison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j72OTvfduBk and here is another must-see to follow up on that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuLQ4gqB5XE.
your comparison is fairly misleading. Not only does Norway have a much lower population than the US. per Wikipedia, Norways population was at 5.29 million at the start of 2018, where in July of 2018, the US passed 325 million. Further, Norway's gross per capita median income is 19,308 international dollars, compared to the US's 15,480. Sorry, but it's apples-to-oranges.
Load More Replies...I don't see the problem, don't commit crimes and you won't go to jail.
Here's a simple answer: don't commit a crime which gets you sent to jail.
Agreed. Yes, there are flaws in the system, but that doesn't mean the prison system is full of innocent people. Innocenceproject.com estimates there's about 20,000 falsely convicted people in prison. In 2016 there were 2.2 million people incarcerated. Even if you DOUBLE innocent projects estimates, that's still less than 2% that might be innocent. That leaves 98% of the incarcerated population that could eliminate the "problem" listed in this article just by NOT BREAKING THE LAW!!!! It's not that hard. There's 320 million other people in the US that managed it just fine in 2016.
Load More Replies...I've said it before and I'll say again, so many people go to prison for petty crimes so the prisons can continue to make money off their bodies. Many are kept there when they should have been released for the same reason. And the government colludes with all this.
This post is so annoying. I work in a federal corrections facility (in Canada), and thank goodness for that. I know how the systems runs here. I know how inmates are paid and what kind of work they do. With that in mind, something that is kind of similar is.. they don't make the same wages as people who are not incarcerated. And of course they wouldn't! Having inmates work IS part of their rehabilitation. They're taking life skills with them upon release. They may not be making a lot, but it's productive useful work. So maybe before you read something in a book or see something on TV, you actually learn from the source.
Let's give proper attribution to Michelle Alexander (her book and her Netflix documentary literally all about this-- Called The 13th), a black woman who backed it up with tons of evidence. This kid didn't think of it, but kudos to him for caring.
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. Getting 3 meals and a bed is not sufficient enough punishment.
This is a misleading article, because it all depends on the state. In many states each prison has a capacity to make products or provide service for the prison system. Not for profit, but to reduce costs to the state and to teach inmates a skillset. Some grow food, others make furniture, some process paperwork, others make clothing. As far as the judicial system works, it works just like everywhere else, the poor are prosecuted, the rich get off.
Good, they should be doing all the s**t jobs for free. Stamp those license plates, clean those highways, pick those damn potatoes!! You do the crime, you do the time! Maybe if prison wasn't a damn daycare then people would be more inclined to stay out of it. There should be no repeat offenders. Jail should be so bad that once you're out, you'll NEVER EVER want to go back in!! Reopen Alcatraz!!
License plates aren't stamped anymore. They're printed over a retro reflective coating. :\
Load More Replies...As the mother of an incarcerated person (non-violent non-drug involuntary crime), I can't begin to reply to most of these comments- People are so ignorant & uneducated about the truths of prison. Most do not have a choice to work, you do what you are told. Yes, they are fed & somewhat clothed but there are things they must pay for (shoes, sweatshirts, medication,doctor/eye glasses etc). If an inmate does not have a family to provide the extra funds they're considered indigent & provided with bare minimum. The food is not nutritious & many get sick from lack of fresh fruit,vegetables, constant hot dogs, baloney, etc. They do not get real "meat", except 2 holidays a year. I could go on & on. Do they need to pay for their crimes? YES! But in a humane way because they are human beings. The system does nothing to rehabilitate (especially for drugs, 75% are). It is proven that prisons that have therapy, job training, "humane" programs have less recidivism. US prisons are a damn mess!
So true my brother went to jail at 19 for non violent drug crime. Got out and went back for breach of probation (which i believe probation terms are quite ridiculous) While I agree that there is a debt to society to be paid it shouldnt go to private for-profit institutions. There incarceration system is so backwards and they wonder why they have such a high rate of recidivism
Load More Replies...I'm all for paying prisoners minimum wage. I'm also all for requiring them to pay room and board during their sentence.
If you committed a crime that put you in prison, you have forfeited your American rights by disrespecting the laws. Not to say so many of our laws ARE flawed but prisoners do not deserve to be paid while incarcerated and should have to provide free labor to their state/city in which the tax payers are paying for them to be in prison.
"...incarcerated persons don’t have constitutional rights under the 13th Amendment – they can be compelled to work for as little as $1 an hour." Where does the $1 figure come from? Later in the article much lower figures are quoted.
WTF. I don't see any problem with that kind of work. They're criminals. As long as they can voluntarily decide I'd they want to work for a dollar per hour I don't see a problem. Only thing I think is problematic, that inmates have to pay for every day objects in prisons.
The exploitation, abuse, and incarceration to make people rich should end, but if everything else is on the up-and-and, I see zero issue with requiring prisoners to work, even for $0. It costs a lot of money to house prisoners. Why shouldn't they work for their keep?
Because they are NOT provided with everything they need. One example is personal hygiene products. They pay for shampoo, soap, deoderant. They must purchase their own shoes. Average footwear cost there is $50. If they are paid $.50 an hour that's 2.5 weeks just for sneakers and they tons of other stuff they must buy from underwear, socks to medication. They should work or do something but the whole system is broken in US.
Load More Replies...Oh my gosh I remember learning about this in 8th grade and I was like "whaaaaa"
A loophole...... Maybe read up on a bit more history and you'll see it was all planned.
This is crazy but true. Another odd thing, my friend in prison who sewed clothes for Walmart received a W2 stating they paid him $8 an hour, yet he only received $0.75 an hour from the prison. Although that money went right back to the prison for phone/email, and basic needs like soap, toothpaste, & deodorant.
So anyone want to watch "Where to invade next?" (Norway episode), where Michael Moore went to Norway prison :D
That headline is b******t. The 13th Amendment does allow an exception. The student is absolutely right. It's not a claim. It's a fact.
This whole article is a big whine about how bad people are made to do good things for the satisfaction of doing good. THEY'RE IN PRISON THEY ARE NOT GOOD PEOPLE THEY DONT DESERVE WHAT FEW PENNIES THEY MAKE. Really, how dumb are you? These are rapists and murderers, child molesters. They DO NOT deserve good things, they deserve to rot!
Read who the private prisons who donate to: https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=G7000 Surprise, surprise! The so-called "Law and Order" party, that supports a leader who has admitted to obstructing justice, is by far the largest recipient.
If anyone saw the documentary 13th, it talks about this exact thing. What this kid found is not new
bruh imagine thinking that at least getting a job in prison for doing crimes in an unsafe condition is a loophole. Its called punishment and in reality things were way worse back in the day. Back in the day, they didn't get three meals a day or a roof under their head, so in a way, this is the best case scenario for those who have caused harm to society. and they're even getting paid.
Good idea in the USA. They are not the land of the free, they are the land of prisoners. First place on "inmates per capita" and also on "inmates". Not even China has as many people in prison. They are only on second place. Looks like the justice system is f****d up or that the USA are the worst country on this planet. I bet on my first guess. Oh, and based on inmates my home country is on place 28, on inmates per captia on place 172. Still our justice system is not perfect, but better.
Wtf... why could it even be wrong? It's not like they're normal, angel -like people, and are used by society - they tried to rob, deceive or maybe even murder somebody. And then they go to prison, where they are served everything right under their noses, not paying for anything - guess why - because society, people that were hurt by them(!), pays for it! Slavery? Good joke!!
In a way, the prisoners are doing/learning a skill and bring occupied. However, part of the wages paid to the prisons should be paid to the prisoners when they have ended their incarceration to help them get back on their feet when they get out. Having said all that, the 'Technicality' in the law should be reviewed as it is a travesty when you look at it from a Human Rights point of view.
So what, they're in prison for a reason, might as well make them useful
AKA the entire premise of Michelle Alexander's book (a Black woman) and the documentary on Netflix based off of her book and with her participation. (It's literally called The 13th). Let's give attribution where it's due.
And the inmates probably adore all the one on one time with the adorable little goats. It's a form of animal therapy and rehabilitation.
Load More Replies...I'm not against inmates working, but they should be paid more. In my country prisoners gets 1,31 dollars per hour (taxfree) and they work 6 hours. But here is the thing, they can also choose to study (even at university level) or get psychological treatment/rehab. Here we look upon prison sentences not as revenge, but as a care system designed to give the inmates the possibility to not turn back to crime once that they are out.
This makes a lot more sense to me. Rehabilitating inmates and providing them with basic life skills so that when they're released they have the tools to succeed rather than creating a revolving door.
Load More Replies...This isn't news at all. It's common practice. Frankly, they deserve slavery while they are incarcerated.
I hope you're joking... being compelled to pay back what you agreed owe is in no sense equivalent to being kept in bondage and having one's life owned and controlled by another. All you're describing above is poor money management and irresponsible indulgence.
Load More Replies...In USA there are plenty of people in prison because of very small crimes. In other countries they probably just would have to pay penalty.
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