Legalized Slavery Still Exists and Social Workers Need to Do Something About It

By Ceema Samimi, MSSW, MPA

Ceema is a doctoral student at the University of Denver interested in utilizing restorative justice as a tool for inter-generational collaboration and youth voice. Follow her on Twitter here: Ceema Samimi

It’s no secret that with only 5% of the world’s population but 25% of the world’s prisoners, the United States houses more incarcerated people than any other country. What many are surprised to learn is that, once incarcerated, many people are forced to work for minimal or no wages. This phenomenon, which is often termed “legalized slavery” or “modern day slavery,” is linked to Federal and State constitutional provisions that allow prisoners to be required to work without pay or standard labor protections. Colorado is one of those states. Last year, an initiative to remove slavery from Colorado’s Constitution, known as Amendment T, failed in referendum.

The amendment sought to remove language which is identical to the enslavement clause in the 13th amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which reads “There shall never be in this state either slavery or involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” Amendment T would have changed that language to “There shall never be in this state either slavery or involuntary servitude.” Despite no organized opposition, the amendment failed, likely due to belief that it would put an end to prison labor.

Despite the failure of the amendment, efforts to end slavery in U.S. prisons continue locally and nationally. On August 19, thousands will gather in Washington D.C. and elsewhere to call for an end to the 13th amendment enslavement clause. This event, sponsored by the iamWe Prison Advocacy Network, comes one year after Colorado’s Amendment T failed in referendum.

The August 19th Millions for Prisoners Human Rights March, or A19, which identifies as part of the “new abolitionist movement,” aligns with the spirit of Amendment T. The march will take place under this mission statement:

“We seek to unite activists, advocates, prisoners, ex-prisoners, their family and friends, as well as all others committed to the fight to drastically reduce or eliminate prisons and the prison system, and replace them with more humane and effective systems. Our aim is to expose the prison industrial complex for the human rights violation that it truly is. We want to challenge the idea that caging and controlling people keeps communities safe. We believe that for too long our nation has relied upon incarceration as a way to solve broader social problems to its detriment. In August of 2017 we will march on Washington to bring world attention to the continued slavery and involuntary servitude in America, enabled by the 13th Amendment and to highlight the ever increasing movement against the prison industrial complex.”

Here are the Millions For Prisoners Human Rights Core demands for Action:

A) We DEMAND the 13th amendment ENSLAVEMENT CLAUSE of the United States Constitution be amended to abolish LEGALIZED slavery in America.
B) We DEMAND a Congressional hearing on the 13th Amendment ENSLAVEMENT CLAUSE being recognized as in violation of international law, the general principles of human rights and its direct links to:

1. Private entities exploiting prison labor
2. Companies overcharging prisoners for goods and services
3. Private entities contracted by states/federal government to build and operate prisons. This would also include immigration detentions
4. Racial disparities in America’s prison population and sentencing
5. Policing: the disproportionate (unaccountable) killings by police in the black and brown communities
6. Felony Disenfranchisement laws
7. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 34,000 detention quotas
8. Producing the world’s largest prison population

Here in Denver, people will meet outside the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility and march towards the ICE detention center. The event will begin at 6:00 p.m. Solidarity events and marches will also take place around the country. To find out if there will be an event near you, you can check here: http://www.iamweubuntu.com/a19-solidarity-demonstrations.html

In this time of roll backs to progressive justice policies and the criminalization of even more people on the horizon, it is imperative that resistance to mass incarceration become an issue critical to social workers. By supporting efforts similar to Amendment T and the A19 march, we can spotlight modern slavery and the challenges it presents to social justice and human rights. Further, social workers can and should be at the forefront of developing alternatives to the current prison labor model. This includes utilizing restorative frameworks to ensure that prisoners are not being exploited for their labor, but that they are engaged in meaningful and rehabilitative activities while incarcerated.

(See Prison Labor Enslaves, but Can it Restore? on this blog for more.)