Slavery is still on the ballot in 5 states in the United States in 2022

[HomerJS]

Knowing the history of the United States I'm amazed will still have to tell some people to take slavery off the books. 5 states are voting to removed it from their constitutions.

Even today when polled 19% of people want to keep slavery on the books.
toplines_2022 Ballot Measures.pdf (yougov.com)

Yeah I know it applies to prisoners. I'm ok with forced labor but just pay them minimum wage so SLAVERY can be removed from the books.
Slavery is on the ballot in 5 states this November (axios.com)

 

[KMFJD]

I'm not ok with forced labor,it's slavery

 

[Muse]

I'm not ok with forced labor,it's slavery

I sometimes think that certain criminals when incarcerated should have to work for their dinner. I'm talking about the creepiest of the creepy. If you watch nightly news you know the kind I mean.

 

[IronWing]

I sometimes think that certain criminals when incarcerated should have to work for their dinner. I'm talking about the creepiest of the creepy. If you watch nightly news you know the kind I mean.

We end up with the prison-plantation systems that flourished in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana throughout most of the 20th century and flourish in Arizona today. There's a reason huge commercial greenhouses set up shop adjacent to Arizona's private prisons. Prisoners work cheap. Note that the prisoners aren't "forced" to work, but their sentences are reduced if they do. It's the best "justice" system capitalists ever constructed - private prisons, prison labor for private profit, and funded by the taxpayers.

 

[blackangst1]

I'm not ok with forced labor,it's slavery

Agree.

 

[Oyeve]

Surprised Vermont is on there.

 

[BurnItDwn]

America, Using prison and slave labor to suppress and devalue the worker, since 1776.

I understand the argument that criminals should have to "pay back" to the system and no "free lunch" but, that doesnt solve any problems, and just causes problems.

I really wish our Justice system would prioritize rehabilitation over punishment.
If people are so frucked up that they can not ever be released due to the danger they may possess to society, then we should still treat them humanely, even if they do not "deserve" it.

Nobody chooses to be born.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

IMO the ideal would be something like Singapore: Just cane people for felonies, get them healed up, let them go.

No destroying people's lives for non-violent offences, putting them in a cycle of criminality because they can never get back on their feet between jail terms, prison labor creating a perverse incentive to criminalize and jail everyone.

 

[blackangst1]

America, Using prison and slave labor to suppress and devalue the worker, since 1776.

I understand the argument that criminals should have to "pay back" to the system and no "free lunch" but, that doesnt solve any problems, and just causes problems.

I really wish our Justice system would prioritize rehabilitation over punishment.
If people are so frucked up that they can not ever be released due to the danger they may possess to society, then we should still treat them humanely, even if they do not "deserve" it.

Nobody chooses to be born.

I could not agree more. Ive said this for 20 years, and from what I can tell, we've made zero progress in this arena.

 

[KMFJD]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1590228362257391620

In regards to Louisiana

https://twitter.com/x/status/1590232079886794752

 

[allisolm]

Well, 4 out of the 5 approved removal of the some or all of the language. Louisiana did not. Good for Alabama, Tennessee, Vermont, Oregon.

Alabama changes to "That no form of slavery shall exist in this state; and there shall not be any involuntary servitude."

Oregon’s ballot measure aims to remove “ all language creating an exception (the exception being use as punishment for a crime) and makes the prohibition against slavery and involuntary servitude unequivocal.”

Tennessee’s measure asks that slavery and indentured servitude shall be “forever prohibited” while including, “nothing in this section shall prohibit an inmate from working when the inmate has been duly convicted of a crime.”

Vermont is excluding the exemption with the wording "...therefore slavery and indentured servitude in any form are prohibited."

Louisiana voted no to "“Do you support an amendment to prohibit the use of involuntary servitude except as it applies to the otherwise lawful administration of criminal justice?” If they had voted for it, the new language would have been “Slavery and involuntary servitude are prohibited.”

Voters in five states have the chance to wipe slavery and indentured servitude off the books | CNN Politics

When slavery was outlawed in the US in 1865, the 13th Amendment included one exception.

www.cnn.com