This post is going to be longer than most that I have done previously, but we must break down the Prison Industrial Complex and the 13th Amendment before we can continue fighting this unjust system. Question, how many knew that slavery is still legal in the United States? This post is to gain understanding of who and why it was constructed and the exception in the amendment. When we speak about reforming the prison system, helping those reenter society, and changing law we must stop and think about why is it like this to begin with? The 13th amendment and the exception in this amendment is the answer to this question. It states, “Thirteenth Amendment, 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.” Once slavery was so called over, the slave masters could not phantom working their own fields. So, the exception to this is basically if they said that you were a criminal you went to jail, and they got free labor. They criminalized African Americans to gain workers. Have you ever seen the movie Birth of a Nation? And I quote “one of the most racist movies ever made”. If you look at society today, you will see that it is the same way. Black, Brown, and Indigenous people is who they built this system for. People like Angela Davis, Assta Shakur, Michelle Alexander who wrote the book titled The New Jim Crow, and finally Max Parthas speak on this issue during their political works. They and so many others like Fredrick Douglas are what we call Abolitionists. They work to abolish slavery. Liberating people mentally and physically throughout the years as well as till this day. The loophole contained within the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery and indentured servitude except as punishment for a crime, paved the way for Southern states to use convict leasing, prison farms, and chain gangs as legal means to continue white control over black people and to secure their labor at no or little cost. Very few white men and women were ever sent to work under these arrangements. By assigning black people to work in the fields and on government works, the state-sanctioned punishment of black people was visible to the public, while white punishment was obscured behind prison walls. Here is an insert from the Vera Institute “It is a narrative that repeats itself throughout this country’s history. From America’s founding to the present, there are stories of crime waves or criminal behavior and then patterns of disproportionate imprisonment of those on the margins of society: black people, immigrants, Native Americans, refugees, and others with outsider status. The result has been the persistent and disproportionate impact of incarceration on these groups. From 1850 to 1940, racial and ethnic minorities—including foreign-born and non-English speaking European immigrants— made up 40 to 50 percent of the prison population.” Let’s jump to the 1970’s there was the war on drugs epidemic under President Nixon. What areas did the drugs end up at? Our neighborhoods, the areas where the oppressed where being targeted even more. This is what lead to Mass incarceration “tough on crime” but the numbers increased drastically under President Regan. We must mention the Crime Bill 1994 by President Clinton created tough new criminal sentences and incentivized states to build more prisons. The 1994 law was the largest crime bill in the history of the United States. 1994 crime bill gave the federal stamp of approval for states to pass even more tough-on-crime laws. By 1994, all states had passed at least one mandatory minimum law, but the 1994 crime bill encouraged even more punitive laws and harsher practices on the ground, including by prosecutors and police, to lock up more people and for longer periods of time. “. In 2015, about 55 percent of people imprisoned in federal or state prisons were black or Latino.” ” There are approximately 2.3 million Americans that are in prison and there is about 1 million African Americans incarcerated, about 1 million are white. Sounds equal until you understand that there are only 11 million African American males verses 90 million White American adults. There are more Black men incarcerated in the United States than there are in the top five populated African nations combined. 4 million people on probation and parole. 4.6 million who can not vote due to a felony charge. 11 or so million going through jails every year. In truth, more people are affected by the 13th Amendment that are not in prison then there are those who are in prison.” Max Parthas
That is a brief back story on who is it built for and here is the why.
Penal labor in the United States is a multi-billion-dollar industry. Annually, incarcerated workers provide at least $9 billion in services to the prison system and produce more than $2 billion in goods.
Different companies such as Whole Foods, McDonald’s, Target, IBM, Texas Instruments, Boeing, Nordstrom, Intel, Wal-Mart, Victoria’s Secret, Aramark, AT&T, BP, Starbucks, Microsoft, Nike, Honda, Macy’s and Sprint and many more actively participated in prison in-sourcing throughout the 1990s and 2000s. After the 2021 storming of the US Capitol, it was noted that FPI would receive priority when the federal government purchases products such as office furniture to replace what was damaged in the riots. Now this is the why, for profit!
Scotland Correctional has a sewing plant located here. These guys make between $17-20 a week. That is roughly less than $3 an hour. We can spend $60 a week at canteen, toothpaste cost $6.00 deodorant is $5.50 shampoo will run around $7 orange juice $2 if you go to medical you will pay $5 for an emergency visit it is $7 with what they are being paid they really are not making enough to buy high hygiene. Trust me, we were hit by inflation as well. Just to give some insight into what they make here and the cost of items in the canteen.
There is a name that I mentioned above, Max Parthas. He is the National Campaign Coordinator for the Abolish Slavery National Network. The links that are down below will have so much information on the movement. I had the pleasure of speaking with him, the knowledge that Mr. Parthas gave to me was such an eye opening, mind changing, and was very inspiring so much so that my fiancé and I have decided to help be apart of the change, and we hope you would join us as well. The YouTube videos, his bio, and information on Abolish Slavery National Network are very informative. Take time to read, comment, share, and hopefully get involved as well. North Carolina’s movement is the 17th Forward, the link is also posted to the website. Also there is audio of me reading a poem that I wrote.
https://www.facebook.com/abolitionnation
https://17thforwardnorthca.wixsite.com/17th-forward-north-c
