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California slave labor: Jailed pre-trial detainees work for private firm—for nothing
(www.peoplesworld.org)
this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2025
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The history of convict leasing in the US should disturb just about anyone with a conscience.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convict_leasing#/search
Yes, but also these are pretrial detainees, as in not yet convicted of any crime. Article 1 of the 13th amendment says "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." (emphasis my own)
Yes, this is unconstitutional,and the constitutional kind is immoral.
I brought up convict leasing because charges were often made up or people were convicted of violations like not having a job. Essentially if you were black in the south you could be arrested and re-enslaved at any time. Not that far off from what we're witnessing here. Trials were a formality and the laws were unjust to begin with.
Yep, they should have standing to sue for constitutional violations. It's slavery even by the standards laid out by the constitution.
Of course, that's assuming a judiciary that actually cares about the constitution.
The US literally doesn't function as it stands without slave labor. Slavery never stopped, we just do it to the incarcerated, and then changed our laws to rapidly increase the amount of people who are incarcerated. Oh look at that, the incarcerated population is predominantly minorities, wonder why that is.
You're missing the forest for the trees. Enslaved prisoners are nothing compared to the economic impact of enslaved immigrants, small potatoes. But I think I see where you're going with this, small potatoes at the moment, yes?
I'm assuming the game plan is to turn immigrants, legal or otherwise, into prisoners so we can work them for free. But that plan doesn't make sense on it's face!
Feeding and housing prisoners is far more expensive than letting employers slide with paying immigrants chicken change and letting them fend for themselves. Some dude from Honduras is on his own to rent a room, feed himself, get his own healthcare, and no guards! Can't get my head around it.
In the immigrant situation, there is no middleman between the employer and the immigrant. The only one profiting off the prisoner situation is the middlemen.