Wanna be a slave? Go to jail.

[harlinchi]

I was perusin' a site whose thread was discussin' whether or not the prison industry represents a new form of slavery, thinkin' to myself, of course it does, when someone actually posted the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The somewhat disturbing amendment reads as follows:


13th. Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Section 1. 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.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.


The exception is disconcerting, no? And you wondered why Blacks were incarcerated at such high rates?

[brokensymmetry]

1. Interesting!

I never realized that. The implications are fascinating - especially as our misleadership flirts with martial law.

[harlinchi]

4. The interesting thing is that the folks in charge view everyone else...

...as Black, i.e., as exploitable! These kinds of actions (overvalue homes for assessment purposes, manipulate vote counts where needed, criminalize behavior disproportionately, speak favorable of segregation, discuss the abortion of all Black babies, drag individuals behind pickup trucks until their limbs fall from their torso, etc.) used to be mostly targeting Blacks. Now the powers that be target all who are not members of their base, i.e., those with incomes in the upper 6-figure range.

It's as though they've closed the door and said, "I've got mine! You can't get yours!"

[ay3100]

21. no kidding

I think I knew that when I was 12

[McKenzie]

2. Might be worth analysing the stock of private providers

The whole game is geared towards profit for the few and private prisons are a grrrreat business opportunity.

Jail people for stupid "crimes" such as drug use that only harms themselves (and "harm" isn't the right word...can't think of another right now...I have a bad case of Indictement Fever) and you have a ready client base.

Then maybe I'm not seeing the benefits of locking away people who should be helped rather than being criminalised.

[whatever4]

8. I agree completely, and in terms of cannabis

The recent story about memory, along with many others, indicate the usage is anything but harmful. So they're actually actively harming the American public by prohibiting it. Doing real physical harm to us, actually causing needless suffering and death.

It's a policy of doing harm to who knows how many, between the prohibited substance and the law enforcement, all I know is, it's utterly insane.

I'm so so so horrified and numbed by what our nation is. When freedom and happiness have more to do with luck of the draw than anything else, things are horribly, horribly wrong. And dangerous. For far too many.

This place. What's left to be proud of anymore? Seriously? We say we're free, but now, it seems that the only freedom we have left is to SAY we're free. Freedom to hopefully not be a target of this corrupt and violent administration, free to feel victimized if we are. Free all right. Free to do what, try to not get "caught", while our email is subject to inspection anywhere, phones, spying is a real and high-tech activity, legally we have NO rights if the right phraseology is used (national security...come with me), and we've even watched protesters carted off, cordoned off, WRITTEN off. Then there's the vote, that we used to trust, and camaras everywhere, which we've become quite accustomed to.

I mean, really, how free are we now? We're free to wait for the ax to fall, it seems like. Free to bitch, while these leaders violate EVERYTHING we say we care about, as if they have no understanding of their constituents at all. As if. Liars. They know we don't want cuts in those programs. They know we want OUT of the war.

Free? NOthing left to be proud of. Except for the people like the people on here. I wish we had a nation left to belong to, all us.

If we were FREE, we would be growing cannabis like gangbusters. Even if it had no use at all recreationally or as medicine, it's virtually as nutritious as soy...and no one would starve. Ever. It requires little to NO fertilization, and does not drain the soil.

In short, it's the perfect crop, with a multitude of uses, and we aren't free at ALL if we can't use it. As far as I can see, it's the best hope we've got, only one I know of, because with droughts and global warming, crops are going to FAIL, and with water shortages crops are going to FAIL and with expensive transportation, crops might not even MATTER if the food doesn't reach the stores. But no. Instead, they'll let us starve. Because they can. And we're all free to watch it happen.

Not to rant...too much, but just to say, we really aren't very free anymore. All we are is free to not get caught, and as the post points out, it's more geared toward "catching" people on a regular, reliable, labor-force basis. Legal slavery. Absolutely. White America just doesn't "get it". I guess we're just free to be idiots. But we always were, everyone is. Our idiocy is being used, and, we're free to allow it. Not much to be proud of.

[phillinweird247]

9. Obedience to the law is your only true freedom

American freedom is an illusion, granted its better than most places here on earth.

We are all slaves to the dollar, otherwise I would not be sitting here at my bullshit job.

[McKenzie]

13. there is a ray or two of hope though

The debate since 9/11 has really opened out and a wide range of people are talking about many of the issues that touch on many of the things you say. The internets is the best thing that ever happened as regards dissemination of free information. I regard it as important as the Industrial Revolution in that respect...which is why it must be protected fiercely.

Maybe, just maybe, a wide range of people are starting to think about the sort of issues discussed on DU and other like minded places. They might just start to question what they have always been sold told. The system is rotten and based upon lies or half truths at best. Such a system can only survive through ignorance...that's slowly changing.

It might not work but I'd rather die fighting on my feet than live on my knees. So keep spreading the word.

[whatever4]

14. Going down swinging, for sure :) nm

[HereSince1628]

3. At the time I suspect it was written to allow "hard labor" punishments

[harlinchi]

6. I have no problem with 'hard labor'.

The wording of the amendment is unfortunate, though.

Original intent (either of the framers of the constitution or of those who amended it) is kind of a muddy area for those who, like me, were originally intended to be a fraction of a human being!

[HereSince1628]

10. Well, the clause says as a punishment for a crime

So, while I get your concern I seems to me that this isn't what this clause is about.

Of course I see that from a contemporary context where getting born into the lineage of someone captured in Africa and sold wouldn't be considered. I don't know if that would have been seen differently by the founders.

[harlinchi]

11. Yeah, but who defines what is a crime?

With disparate sentences for possession of different forms of the same drug (to speak of one example), the issue quickly becomes more problematic!

[HereSince1628]

15. True. And "3 strikes" could mean a life of slavery if convicted

I agree it is a painful picture to contemplate.

US Corporations want cheap labor and shipping costs. If you ship from inside the US to US markets and use slave labor you can't get cheaper.

[ay3100]

22. hard labor or punishment

What exactly are prisoners supposed to be doing then...don't do the crime if you cant do the time

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

25. That's one of the most idiotic sentences in the English language.

Me: "20 years in prison for stealing pizza 3 times? That's insane!"
Generic Idiot: "Don't do the crime if you cant do the time."
Me: "I hear that in China you can go to prison for accessing foreign political websites."
Generic Idiot: "Don't do the crime if you cant do the time."
Me: "OK, now I feel a sudden urge to kick your nuts. I only won't do that because I don't want to get arrested."
Generic Idiot: "Don't do the crime if you cant do the time."
Me: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGHHHHHHH!!!!!! *KICK*
Generic Idiot: _{Uuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrggghhhhhh....}

[ieoeja]

26. Hear! Hear!

Though "20 years in prison for stealing pizza 3 times" sounds like you misunderstand the 3-Strikes laws. These laws do NOT mean you have to commit a qualifying crime 3 times. It means you have to commit 3 qualifying crimes. For example, you steal a pizza and $45 cash by threatening the delivery guy with a firearm. You are now guilty of:

felony theft (over $50),
assault with a deadly weapon,
use of a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony,
use of a firearm in the commission of a felony,
and probably several more violent criminal violations.

Congratulations! You have just earned three strikes in what may have been your first time at bat. I can even make this easier. It is not at all uncommon for a law to be used for purposes opposed by the original authors. Consider the use of drug enforcement tactics at Ruby Ridge and WACO, for instance. So let's say some anti-gun types push through a law making any crime involving firearms a qualifying crime under 3-Strikes legislation. Next some farmer, with a box of .22 shells in his glove compartment gets pulled over in a city where such things are banned. 100 shells, 100 violations. Off to jail for life, Mr. Farmer.

Doubt me? This was one of the biggest causes leading to my dropping out of the NRA. Shortly after California initiated their 3-Strikes law, the NRA sued the state for letting a first time offender out of jail because he had been convicted of 3 qualifying crimes. The State admitted their fault.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

27. HOLY. FUCKING. SHIT.

Do you have a news link to that story? It is SO fucked up I want to be 100% certain it's true before passing it around. I hope you're not offended, but you know... only right-wingers are exempt from thorough fact checking. Sigh.

[ieoeja]

28. This was over a dozen years ago.

Sorry. No link. Didn't even see a news story then. It was a paragraph touting this NRA success in their magazine, American Rifleman, which I received monthly.


This same magazine featured an essay by Wayne LaPierre following the OKC bombing in which he denies NRA culpability in feeding Timothy McVeigh's paranoia about the gov't. That very same issue included an article by Neal Knox discussing Black Helicopters swooping into a Chicago suburb in the middle of the night and rounding up all the citizenry.

Nope, no paranoia inducing articles here.

[ay3100]

29. no the 2nd most...

No, whats idiotic is threatening people with violence because you have a difference of opinion

[harlinchi]

12. BTW, were your folks...

...actually here since 1628? Impressive, if so!

[HereSince1628]

16. Yes. Arrived at what is now Connecticutt, helped found Southampton

Long Island.

[harlinchi]

17. As an African-American of Miq'mac ancestry with a sprinkling of Irish...

who thought his folks have been here a while, I tip my hat to your family!

[HereSince1628]

18. Thanks,

geneology is fun, but it only addresses the short term. In the long history, we are somehow, somewhere back in time, all linked into the same family.

[Burning Water]

5. Interesting, indeed n/t

[Asgaya Dihi]

7. A few links

A few links that might be helpful in researching the subject.

This page has a lot of good info on the system itself.

Prison Policy Initiative
http://www.prisonpolicy.org/index.shtml

This one explains a bit about how it's useful in politics and helps to strip poor neighborhoods of representation while increasing the representation of prison towns.

Prisoners of the Census
http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/

And this one is to an hour long audio by American Radioworks on the prison system, there's a lot to the page but the main point is a link to an hour long audio in the resources section toward the lower left side. It helps to explain how our laws are really written and by who, and what's behind many of the ads we see.

American RadioWorks : Corrections Inc.
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/corrections/index.html

I've been digging into this stuff for years now, it's dirty as hell and both parties have played at it. Slavery isn't a bad term for it, at least in parts.

[TheFarseer]

19. What's wrong with prisoners making licence plates?

Or doing upkeep on the prison? Or digging ditches if need be for that matter? I thought they made a few pennies for working. Maybe I'm not quite up on that. As long as they are only doing work for the state and never for the benefit of any company, I don't see a problem. What, should they sit around and get flabby and stupid? Might as well, put them to work. They might learn something.

[Asgaya Dihi]

20. What's wrong with prisoners making license plates?

If it was that simple, nothing would be. It's not though.

Prison labor is big business, and it's more and more for the benefit of large multi-national corporations. Here's a quick excerpt from an article about it that touches on the type of work being done and for who, it's a subject worth web searching on.

The Joint Ventures Program
The Joint Venture Program of the California Department of Corrections is the board responsible for contracting out convict labor to "any public entity, nonprofit or for profit entity, organization, or business." <23> This program was created by the passage of Proposition 139, the Inmate Labor Initiative of 1990, which was an initiative to overturn the 1882 abolition of convict leasing in California. A poll conducted by the San Francisco Chronicle found that less than 25 percent of the electorate was aware of Proposition 139 less than one month before the election. <24> However, when voters read the ballot description, a majority passed this initiative allowing private business to profit from convict laborers. Work that had been done on the outside is now done by convicts who are paid 20 percent of minimum wage, worked under constant armed supervision, unable to legally unionize, and unprotected by the Fair Labor-Standards Act.

That from the web page http://www.prisonactivist.org/crisis/labor-of-doing-time.html in the joint ventures program section. You can find a lot more info at http://www.prisonactivist.org/prison-labor/ and a web search for prison labor would bring up more yet.

BTW, the prisons themselves often aren't even State run these days, the whole thing is becoming a for profit enterprise and they contract labor out to some of the largest corps in America. Corrections Corporation of America is now something like the fifth or sixth largest incarcerator in the nation behind only some of the largest States and the Federal Government. All for profit, with their own advertising and lobbiest budgets, and their own reasons for promoting their own growth and profit base. The system is dirty as hell, and getting worse.

[Hippo_Tron]

24. Watch the Shawshank Redemption if you never have

Then when you watch it, keep in mind that the Warden was exploiting prison labor for profit in the 1940s which was still the Roosevelt/Truman era. Now think about how much more powerful corporations are today than they were back then and you have a sense of how prison labor is exploited.

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

23. Good find

and especially since so many inmates have been incarcerated for nonviolent drug crimes-- with an overwhelming plurality being black (or dirt-poor white, for that matter)-- this does seem to amount to a rather pathetic send-up of old-fashioned slavery, or at least the chain gangs. It's one of the reasons IIRC that Amnesty International ranked the USA near the bottom on many indices of human rights and respect for the indigent.