US elections: why slavery is the subject of referendums in 5 states

The United States abolished slavery 157 years ago — that is, since then, no person can be the legal property of another. But one exception remained: condemned prisoners.

In most parts of the United States, slavery is still legal when adopted as a penalty for a crime.

But in the Nov. 8 elections, voters in five states — Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont — will decide whether or not to eliminate these exceptions from their state constitutions in a bid to outlaw slavery altogether.

The result could allow prisoners to challenge forced labor. Currently, some 800,000 prisoners work for pennies, or without pay. Seven states do not pay wages to prison workers for most required jobs.

‘I worked for 25 years and came home with $124’

The roots of the modern system go back to centuries of African American slavery, according to human rights researchers.

In the years following the abolition of slavery, laws were passed specifically aimed at repressing black communities and putting them in prison, where detainees would be forced to work.

Today, there are black American prisoners who are still forced to harvest cotton and other products from the southern plantations where their ancestors were kept in chains.

“The United States of America has never had a day without legal slavery,” says Curtis Ray Davis II, who spent more than 25 years in hard labor in a Louisiana prison for a murder he did not commit, until his reprieve in 2019.

Davis had a series of jobs at the well-known Louisiana State Penitentiary, nicknamed “Angola”, after the country from which many of the enslaved Africans in the region were brought.

“I worked for 25 years and came home with $124 [cerca de R$ 627]”, says Davis. He never received more than US$ 0.20 (about R$ 1) per hour of work, which, according to him, was done “against my will and at gunpoint”.

About 75% of prisoners in the penitentiary were black, according to the Innocence Project, a group that works to free innocent prisoners who have been convicted. The group claims that in “Angola” American slavery never ended.

“Slavery was abolished, but really it was just a transfer of ownership from legal slavery and private property to literally state-sanctioned slavery,” says Savannah Eldrige of the National Network for the Abolition of Slavery.

The organization has been working to expand the number of states that ban slavery without exceptions and has been trying to convince lawmakers in the US capital, Washington, to pass a similar law amending the US Constitution.

Since 2018, the states of Colorado, Nebraska and Utah have passed measures banning all forms of slavery. Eldrige points out that the movement has gathered support from both Democrats and Republicans. Only then was approval possible in Utah and Nebraska, states dominated by Republicans.

It predicts that by 2023, 18 state legislatures will pass laws to ban slavery.

‘Unwanted consequences’

Few spoke out against state efforts to eliminate the language of slavery. But the movement has met with resistance from critics who say it would be too expensive to pay prisoners adequate wages, that they do not deserve the same pay, or that the changes would disadvantage detainees.

The California legislature rejected removing references to slavery from state laws on a vote in 2022, when Democrats, including the state governor, warned that paying prisoners the state minimum wage of $15. per hour, it would cost more than US$ 1.5 billion (about R$ 7.6 billion).

The Oregon Sheriffs Association opposes the measure in the state. They claim its approval would bring “unwanted consequences” and the loss of all “renovation programs”, which include low-paying tasks such as working in the library, kitchen and laundry.

The group claims that these tasks provide prisoners with something to do and “serve as an incentive for good behavior,” which is a factor considered in parole hearings.

For the association, this measure poses two problems: it only applies to convicts, leaving out people detained awaiting trial, and it could mean the end of all prison programs not specifically authorized by court order.

“Oregon sheriffs do not condone or support slavery and/or involuntary servitude in any form,” the association states in a flyer to voters. She adds that the approval of the measure “will result in the elimination of all reform programs and increase the operating costs of local chains”.

Large companies, via outsourced

Prisoners contribute to the economy and supply chain in many ways, some of them surprising.

They have been called upon to produce everything from eyeglasses to license plates and park benches. They process meat, milk and cheese and work in call centers for government agencies and major companies.

Tracking down companies that have used prison labor can be difficult, as the work is often outsourced. A contracted company sells prisoners’ products and services to important companies that are sometimes unaware of their origin.

Companies that have already benefited from prison labor in the state of Utah alone include American Express, Apple, PepsiCo and FedEx, according to an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) report published in June.

At least 30 states include prison workers in their emergency operation plans against natural disasters and other civil disturbances. And they fight fires in at least 14 states, according to the ACLU report.

But prisoners’ lives are unlikely to change overnight in the five referendum states, if the measure passes.

“These referendums are necessary but not sufficient to end slavery,” says Jennifer Turner, a human rights researcher at the ACLU.

Courts will still need to interpret what rights prison workers have and whether they will receive sick pay, which freed workers are legally entitled to.

In states that have already eliminated slavery exceptions, results have been mixed.

In Colorado, a prisoner sued the state for what he claimed was violating the abolition of slavery. But in August, a court ruled that lawmakers did not intend to abolish all prison labor and closed the case.

A prison in Nebraska started paying inmates $20 to $30 a week after the exception was eliminated in that state, according to The New York Times. Further legal challenges are expected to arise as prisoners continue to fight for their rights and protections.

Davis, who was wrongfully imprisoned in Louisiana, says eliminating the prison exception will end this “incentive” for his home state to detain its citizens.

“I believe that anyone with a conscience, anyone who understands property law, understands that human beings should never be the property of other people,” he told BBC News. “And that shouldn’t be owned by the state of Louisiana either.”

This text was published here.