The measures approved Tuesday could limit the use of prison labor in Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont. In Louisiana, a former slave state and one of the few that sentences convicted felons to hard labor, lawmakers trying to get rid of inmate labor ended up torpedoing their own measure. Voters were told to reject it because the ballot measure included ambiguous language that did not prohibit involuntary servitude in the criminal justice system. Despite the setback in Louisiana, Max Parthas, campaign coordinator for the National Abolition Network, called Tuesday’s vote on the anti-slavery measure historic. “I believed that the people would choose freedom from slavery, if given the opportunity, by taking the question of slavery from the legislators and placing it in the hands of the people. And they proved us right,” he said. The four approved initiatives would not force immediate changes in state prisons, but could prompt legal challenges over the practice of forcing inmates to work under the threat of penalties or loss of privileges if they refuse to work. Vermont’s constitutional amendment removes what supporters say is ambiguous language and makes clear that slavery and indentured servitude are prohibited in the state. While Vermont’s legislature was the first state to abolish adult slavery in 1777, its constitution stated that no person 21 years of age or older should serve as a slave unless bound by his own consent or “by the law of the payment of debts, damages, fines, costs, or the like.” The amendment removes this language and adds that slavery and indentured servitude in any form are prohibited. “We think it shows how forward-thinking and well-intentioned Vermonters are, and we look forward to using this as a springboard to do a lot of work to eliminate systemic racism in the future,” said Debbie Ingram, executive director of Vermont Interfaith Action. and a former state senator who supported the proposal. The results were widely celebrated among anti-slavery advocates, including those pushing for a further amendment to the US Constitution, which prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude except as a form of criminal punishment. More than 150 years after enslaved Africans and their descendants were freed from slavery through the ratification of the 13th Amendment, the slavery exemption still allows for the exploitation of the labor of enslaved people. “Voters in Oregon and other states have come across party lines to say this stain needs to be removed from state constitutions,” Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat, told The Associated Press. “Now, it’s time for all Americans to come together and say it should be taken from the US Constitution. There should be no exceptions to the prohibition of slavery,” he said. Coinciding with the creation of the June 1 federal holiday last year, Merkley and Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Georgia, reintroduced legislation to revise the 13th Amendment to end the slavery exemption. If it wins approval in Congress, the constitutional amendment must be ratified by three-quarters of the US states. After Tuesday’s vote, more than a dozen states still have constitutions that include language allowing slavery and involuntary servitude for prisoners. Several other states have no constitutional language for or against the use of forced labor in prison. Colorado voters became the first to approve removing slavery exemption language from the state constitution in 2018, followed by Nebraska and Utah two years later. Parthas said he and other advocates in his network worked with 15 states on anti-slavery legislation in 2022, though only five made it to the ballot. In 2023, the network plans to work with two dozen states. “We will continue to do it as many times as necessary” until the US reaches the 38-state threshold needed to revise the 13th Amendment, Parthas said. “Even our ancestors couldn’t get this far,” he said. The movement to end or regulate the use of prison labor has been around for decades, dating back to when former Confederate states sought ways to maintain the use of slavery after the Civil War. Southern states used racist laws, referred to as “black codes,” to criminalize, imprison, and re-enslave Black Americans for benign behavior. Today, prison labor is a multi-billion dollar practice. By comparison, workers can make pennies on the dollar. And prisoners who refuse to work can be denied privileges such as phone calls and visits with family, as well as placed in solitary confinement, all punishments eerily similar to those used during slavery. “The 13th Amendment didn’t actually abolish slavery — what it did was make it invisible,” Bianca Tylek, an anti-slavery advocate and executive director of the criminal justice advocacy group Worth Rises, told the AP in an interview before the election. . Day. He said the passage of ballot initiatives, especially in red states like Alabama, “is a big signal of what’s possible at the federal level.” “There’s a big opportunity here, right now,” Tylek said.
AP writer Lisa Rathke in Montpelier, Vermont, contributed.
Aaron Morrison is a member of AP’s Race and Ethnicity team based in New York. Follow him on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/aaronlmorrison. Follow AP’s coverage of the midterm elections at and check out to learn more about the issues and factors at play.
