As I alluded to last month, the United States Supreme Court decision in the Slaughter – House cases, 83 U.S. 36, (1872), explained the intent of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. The foundation of these cases was not directly about the Thirteenth Amendment but it had ramifications on how the courts interpret the Amendment. It explained that, “While the Thirteenth Article of amendment was intended primarily to abolish African slavery, it equally forbids Mexican peonage or the Chinese coolie trade, when they amount to slavery or involuntary servitude; and the use of the word ‘servitude’ is intended to prohibit all forms of involuntary slavery of whatever class or name.”

Mr. Justice Miller, on April 14,1873, gave the opinion of the Court. In part, it reads, “But what we do say, and what we wish to be understood is, that in any far and just construction of any section or phase of these amendments, it is necessary to look to the purpose which we have said was the pervading spirit of them all, the evil which they were designed to remedy, and the process of continued addition to the Constitution, until that purpose was supposed to be accomplished, as far as constitutional law can accomplish it.”

Reverend Eric Banner, Assistant Minister of the Jefferson Unitarian Church in Golden, Colorado, in support of Colorado’s removal of the “Punishment Clause” from their state’s constitution stated, in part, “and as long as we treat people as slaves while they are incarcerated, we will produce people who have developed a slave’s mindset. A way of being that has neither dignity or preparation for life on the outside.”

Angela Hanks of the Center for Law and Social Policy out it this way, “Forced labor for low or no wages is called slavery.”

Involuntary servitude has a negative effect on the economies of every state as well. It allows prison industry – Federal Prison Industries Program (UNICOR), Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP), North Carolina Correction Enterprise, and the several states with similar labor programs – an unfair competitive advantage due to their source of cheap labor not subject to the states’ or federal labor laws.

An April 2017 analysis by the Prison Policy Initiative economists consider that even at the low wages of prison labor programs, they are less efficient or cost – effective than private – sector workers, partly due to the cost of paying guards for the security of the programs.

As an alternative to contacting your legislator or in addition to, there are a number of organizations that are actively persuing the abolition of the “Exception Clause” from state and federal constitutions. Contact them and offer your support. They are: Abolish Slavery National Network, Alliance of Families for Justice, Amnesty International, Anti – Recidivism Coalition, Color of Change, Constitutional Accountability Center, Democracy for America, Dream Corps, Human Rights Watch, Invisible Polaris, Sentencing Project, and the Human Rights Defense Center.

Until next month.

The post A Twenty – First Century Slave: It Shouldn’t Exist by Christopher Ridley appeared first on Inmate Blogger.