Current and former inmates announced a lawsuit Tuesday challenging Alabama’s prison labor program as a type of “modern day slavery,” saying prisoners are forced to work for little pay — and sometimes no pay — in jobs that benefit government entities or private companies.
The class action lawsuit also accuses the state of maintaining a discriminatory parole system with a low release rate that ensures a supply of laborers while also generating money for the state.
“The forced labor scheme that currently exists in the Alabama prison system is the modern reincarnation of the notorious convict leasing system that replaced slavery after the Civil War,” Janet Herold, the legal director of Justice Catalyst Law, said Tuesday.
The Alabama Department of Corrections and the Alabama attorney general’s office declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Isn’t that literally in the constitution though?
The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865, says: “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.
Obviously slavery is horrific
I don’t think most people are aware of that exception clause but yes, that’s exactly what it says and this sort of situation is exactly why it is phrased that way.
yeah, but we already went down this road and defeated it in court back when they were leasing inmates after the civil war.
From what I can tell, it was never defeated in court, just phased out because it was unpopular.
Also we pretty much have convict leasing now. If you want to be depressed, look up how many big companies use prison labor.
The first step to changing the constitution is to challenge it in a lower court.
Alabama: “Well actually, this is just old school slavery”
And perfectly acceptable according to the US Constitution.
Hell we can’t even really blame the Supreme Court if it makes it that far, it’s very, very clear.
The lawsuit accuses the state of violating the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution, anti-human trafficking laws and the Alabama Constitution.
There may be something behind the last two but slavery is permitted in the 13th Amendment as punishment for crimes.
What about the fact that the country was founded on the back of slavery and still allows slavery to this day federally?
Jim Crow laws came about in the South to be a bridge for this.
https://www.npr.org/podcasts/1100064032/deliberate-indifference
If really interested, the local NPR station did a long origin story of the Alabama Prison System.
There was one prison until slavery ended.
Did you know that Alabama is the anus of the US?
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“you did a bad thing”
Not everyone in prison is guilty.
Also, forced labor is shitty. They’re still human. Don’t be shitty.
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I bet you think you’re a paradigm of virtue.
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