The 13th Amendment, as we learn it in school, tells us that the amendment ended slavery in 1865. However, a quick Google search will tell you differently. What the 13th Amendment actually says is, “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.” This quote is taken directly from the Library of Congress (loc.gov). Simply stated, only the penal system can impose slavery or involuntary servitude.

In 1871, a case was brought before the Virginia Supreme Court, Ruffin vs. Commonwealth, during which the court said, “He has, as a consequence of his crime, not only forfeited his liberty, but all his personal rights except those which the law in its humanity accords to him. He is for the time being a slave of the State. He is civiliter mortus.” (Alexander, Michelle The New Jim Crow, pg 31)

Civiliter mortus means, civilly dead; one is considered naturally dead so far as his rights are concerned (lawdictionary.org).

I say this to you to inform, educate, and possibly incite you in a way that sparks positive change.

Long ago I believed that prisons were a solely a good thing. Now, as an adult, I don’t believe this to be true. There are positive aspects of jail, namely removing violent offenders from our streets. But for me, I see many more negatives. Rehabilitation of inmates is poor if in existence at all, which poses a HUGE problem for society when these “criminals” are led back onto our streets. I frame criminals with quotes because many people deemed criminals are mentally ill persons who have committed a crime. I don’t see these individuals as criminals. I see them as mentally ill people who have committed a crime. Even in the most heinous of crimes, locking a mentally ill person behind a cell, and often in solitary confinement, does them no justice. The public mental health system in place in our society fails individuals daily allowing for, in cases, crime to take place. I’ve digressed slightly. Aside from rehabilitation failures of our penal system in regards to mental health it fails to integrate someone back into society properly. In the most basic sense – financially. The most basic need in our society is money. Sure we can argue it is food, water, shelter, clothing, and safety, but in reality these things can be had with money. For an ex-convict this (money) is very important. Many states have disenfranchisement laws prohibiting felons from receiving public assistance while on probation or parole. Some states take it a step further prohibiting them for life. Without public assistance in housing, education, food, shelter, and thus safety money is needed. Many people leave prison with only fare home. But what does this really do for them? Nothing. You can get home, to where you once believed home to be, to find no one. And then what? I say this to say, most prisons have a prison labor force and inmates are making money. The DLC (Democratic Leadership Council), in August 2009, estimated the prison labor annual sales at $2.4 billion. In the same year there was a reported 2.3 million people in jail (dlc.org). Paul Wright, editor of Prison Legal News, dedicated to prisoners’ legal rights, in an interview breaks down the wages of prisoners. He says, “Well, the prisoners that work here in Washington doing institutional jobs are on average paid 42 cents an hour, and the maximum amount they can make is $55 a month, and the state takes a chunk of that. Then there are Class 2 industries — license plates, furniture, stuff like that — and those prisoners make a maximum of $1.10 an hour. This is the type of work that generally most prisoners can do or have access to. Then, most recently, there are the Class 3 industries, where prisoners work for private industry, and they are nominally paid the minimum wage. The reason I say nominal is they may be paid the minimum wage, but the state takes percentages of it for their so-called incarceration, for various other fines, and legal obligations and such, so the result is that they get paid maybe $1.50 – $2 an hour. And the key thing here is that the businesses are only in prison because they are getting huge amounts of taxpayer subsidies from the state government.” While Wright is speaking about Washington, I find it hard to believe that there is a great disparity between the states and thus assume this to be a pretty good figure to use as an average estimate. But with making money, and having incredulous fees and taxes withdrawn from your wages you are left with hardly nothing. Businesses are using cheap labor civiliter mortus.

And so as you think about this I say, and so slavery continues and the cycle resumes.

notjustmythoughts

http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/13thamendment.html
http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfmkaid=108&subid=900003&contentid=255055
https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/(S(p3dnmy55zb1k3355ts53dzna))/displayNews.aspxnewsid=147&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1