Slavery on the ballot: Will voters say no to prisoner labor?

Prisons can force inmates to work and pay nothing or just a few cents per hour. On the midterm ballot next week in five states, there are measures that would ban that practice. Photo by Shutterstock.

The 13th Amendment barred involuntary servitude and enslavement more than 150 years ago. But there was one key exception: “as a punishment for crime.” So prisons can force inmates to work and pay nothing or just a few cents per hour. During next week’s midterm elections, five states have ballot measures that would ban that practice. California is not among them — it rejected that idea a few years ago because officials feared the state would have to pay billions of dollars to inmates.

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