Slavery put on the ballot in US states

Voters in five US states gave their say on Tuesday on whether state charters should be amended to pave the way for an end to forced labor in prisons.

As people went to the polls across the United States, voters in Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont had an extra task of considering constitutional amendments against slavery and involuntary servitude in the prison system.

The voters in the five states were asked to eliminate language in their state constitutions that allows slavery as punishment in prisons, due to an exception clause written into the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery in 1865.

The amendment bans slavery or involuntary servitude, except when it is used as punishment for a crime. But due to the exception clause, slavery and involuntary servitude still exist in today's prison system.

Almost 20 states have constitutions that include language permitting slavery and involuntary servitude as criminal punishments. In 2018, Colorado was the first to remove the language from its founding frameworks by a ballot, followed by Nebraska and Utah two years later.

Advocates for the referendums say abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude could strengthen prison-reform efforts in the US, where roughly 800,000 prisoners work, often forced to do so for little to no pay.

If passed, the proposals would wholly abolish slavery in those states, though they wouldn't automatically change protocols on prison labor or inmate pay.

A report released in June by the Global Human Rights Clinic of the University of Chicago and the American Civil Liberties Union found that 76 percent of surveyed prisoners said they face punishment if they decline to work.

That translates to a current population of more than 500,000. Overall, the report said the prisoners produce about $9 billion in services a year, and about $2 billion worth of goods were produced in 2021.

According to CNN, in Alabama, if the voters approve, the state constitution will change from: "That no form of slavery shall exist in this state; and there shall not be any involuntary servitude, otherwise than for the punishment of crime, of which the party shall have been duly convicted" to "That no form of slavery shall exist in this state; and there shall not be any involuntary servitude."

In Louisiana, if voters back the change, the new constitution will say: "Slavery and involuntary servitude are prohibited."

In Oregon, the voters will decide whether to remove "all language creating an exception and makes the prohibition against slavery and involuntary servitude unequivocal".

In Tennessee, the measure asks that slavery and indentured servitude shall be "forever prohibited" but "nothing in this section shall prohibit an inmate from working when the inmate has been duly convicted of a crime".

In Vermont, the language reads: "That all persons are born equally free and independent, and have certain natural, inherent, and unalienable rights, amongst which are the enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety; therefore, slavery and indentured servitude in any form are prohibited."

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However, Vermont Senator Dick McCormack, a Democrat, told CNN that such wording "doesn't end prison labor. It doesn't fix the 13th Amendment."

Advocates hope that state-level movements will one day lead to the removal of the exception clause from the 13th Amendment all at once.

"If their populaces vote for this at the state level, then we have to believe that their congressional representatives will also have to support it as a federal measure," Bianca Tylek, the executive director of Worth Rises, a group that is pushing for the removal of the clause, told CNN. "The more states that do this, the more federal support we can garner."