Celebrating Labor Day by Ending Slave Labor

Slavery's legacy — from its beginnings to today's prison-industrial complex — has endured, and an end to slavery requires real reform. Reform has to be brought to our prison system, as many incarcerated individuals do seek out experiences and opportunities to build essential skills needed to find gainful employment after release. But rather than creating meaningful experiences for those in prison, this work very often “offers nothing beyond exploitation.”

In the current system, not only do imprisoned workers not consider these skills transferable, 76 percent report being forced to work or else face additional punishment. And for many, the system has made it hard to find work after release — and with little to no money, what options are left? The prison system has created an endless cycle, and an endless source of exploitative labor. No individual deserves to be enslaved, and the current system stands diametrically opposed to the notion of freedom that we claim is embedded into the fabric of the nation.

The American prison system, including prison work, has the potential to be rehabilitative, but can it move beyond its resting state of exploitation? Organizations like the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee are working to try, through prisoner-led efforts, to end “the criminalization, exploitation, and enslavement of working class people”. And politicians are even taking it a step further: trying to close the “slavery loophole” baked into the 13th Amendment with the introduction of the Abolition Amendment earlier this summer.

“The current system stands diametrically opposed to the notion of freedom that we claim is embedded into the fabric of the nation.”

The Abolition Amendment — promoted by Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) — would close that loophole and stop the continuous oppression of Black Americans through mass incarceration. The bill has been introduced into Congress and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, but still progress remains necessary.