The states that will have SLAVERY on the ballot in the midterm elections: Voters in Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont will tackle the 13th Amendment ‘loophole’ that allows prison labor
The 13th Amendment forbade slavery except as a punishment for a crime
There are about 800,000 detainees who are forced to work
Only Rhode Island, Colorado, Utah, and Nebraska have explicit anti-coercive prison labor rules, with Rhode Island’s death in 1842
Alabama voters’ vote goes one step further and could ban ‘all racist language’ from Southern state constitution
Louisiana’s is murkier, prohibiting “the use of involuntary servitude, except as it applies to the otherwise lawful criminal justice system”
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Voters in five states will decide whether to close a loophole in the constitution allowing slavery as a criminal punishment in this year’s midterm elections in November.
Involuntary servitude was made largely illegal by the 13th Amendment in 1865 – except for people serving criminal sentences.
The “loophole” of slavery has been a central focus for prison reform and mass incarceration activists.
On Nov. 8, residents of Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont will vote on the ballot measures in their respective states to close that loophole.
Vermont was the first state to outlaw slavery when the practice was outlawed in 1777 – but the state constitution makes an exception for people “bound by law to pay debts, damages, fines, costs, and the like.”
It is one of 20 states with such clauses.
Colorado, Utah and Nebraska passed similar ballot measures in 2018. And five other states — New Jersey, California, Texas, Florida and Ohio — are also preparing for such votes.
Rhode Island is the only state to outlaw forced labor as a punishment for a crime when it was enacted into the state constitution in 1842.
Five states will vote on Nov. 8 on whether or not to ban forced labor as a form of punishment, after Colorado, Utah and Nebraska took similar voting measures in 2018.
Each of the five ballot initiatives it had in November closed the prison loophole in those states.
In Louisiana, however, the outcome would be murkier.
Its voting initiative prohibits “the use of involuntary servitude, except to the extent it applies to otherwise lawful criminal justice.”
Louisiana State Representative Alan Seabaugh told PEW Research that he believes the measure “technically permits slavery” and will have little impact on state law.
‘It’s really just symbolic. It says what’s already in the books — although possibly worse,” Seabaugh told the outlet.
Alabamans, however, take it a step further and vote on whether or not to remove “all racist language” from their state constitution.
It’s one of many hot-button topics that voters across the country will vote on in November’s midterm elections.
Closing the prison loophole in the 13th Amendment would be a huge victory for the current civil rights movement.
Last year, Democrat Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Democratic House Representative Nikema Williams of Georgia introduced a constitutional amendment that would have banned imprisoned slave labor at the federal level.
“The loophole in our constitution’s prohibition of slavery not only allowed slavery to continue, but led to an era of discrimination and mass incarceration that continues to this day,” Merkley said at the time.
Of the approximately 1.2 million people in federal and state prisons, about 800,000 are forced to work for as little as 50 cents an hour, and in some states for nothing.
The data comes from a June 2022 report from the American Civil Liberties Union.
Forced labor constitutes an industry worth at least $11 billion, according to the report.