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The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution allows involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime, leading to prisoners being forced to work for little or no pay. Compulsory prison labor generates at least $2 billion annually, with the US having the largest prison population in the world.
Every American learns in school that the 13th Amendment to the Constitution ended slavery in the United States. But the story of involuntary servitude didn’t end in 1865, when the amendment was ratified and adopted. People who have been convicted of a crime can still be legally forced to work because the 13th Amendment allows involuntary slavery or servitude “as punishment for the crime for which the party must have been duly convicted.” And since the mid-1800s, US states have done just that, forcing inmates to work in a variety of settings to help offset housing costs. This ranged from contracting out inmates as work crews to having prisoners work in on-site shops to produce marketable goods. For the most part, inmates are not paid well, if at all. Across the country, the average daily wage for an inmate is between $0.93 and $4.93 USD, although in some states they receive no monetary compensation. And under the sentences resulting from interpretations of the 13th Amendment, prisons have the right to punish inmates who refuse to work.
The big exception to the 13th Amendment:
In 1871, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled in Ruffin v. Commonwealth that prisoners are “slaves of the state”.
Compulsory prison labor in the United States generates at least $2 billion dollars annually in goods and services.
The United States has the largest prison population in the world, with nearly 2.3 million people incarcerated.
