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File Name | S22-Policy-NCFCA-54-NEG-13thAmendment.docx |
File Size | 251.36 KB |
Date added | February 28, 2022 |
Category | Policy (NCFCA) |
Author | Vance Trefethen |
Resolved: The United States Federal Government should significantly reform its policies regarding convicted prisoners under federal jurisdiction
Case Summary: The AFF case overcomes the wording of the 13th Amendment that deals with prison labor. 13A was a post-Civil War amendment that abolished “involuntary servitude” (a.k.a. slavery) “except” as punishment for a crime. Southern states, still angry about losing the War and still harboring racist views against Blacks and wishing they were still slaves, used the “exception” clause to partially reinstate slavery in the years following the War. State legislatures passed so many laws aimed specifically at Blacks that it almost made being Black itself a crime, and it was easy to arrest Black people for anything any time, anywhere. Once they were “convicted of a crime” (like being out in public for no reason), the state prisons would then contract with the property owners that used to own slaves, and they would pay very low rates for prison labor. They got their slaves back, all legally and in compliance with the 13th Amendment.
That dark racism in the prison system is long gone today. Most view prison labor (at ridiculously low wages, either in prison industries or contracted out to the benefit of outside private companies) as a means of rehabilitation (job skills) or improved inmate behavior (keep them busy and tired, and they don’t sit around idle and thinking up mischief.) In any case, that racist/slave motivation was in the Southern states, not in the federal system, so there is no slave legacy at the federal level. But AFF’s are worried that the involuntary assignment of work to federal prisoners is an echo of slavery that needs to be abolished.