B.2(d). Protection from Enslavement or Involuntary Servitude

Slavery and involuntary servitude are prohibited except as punishment for a crime, and even then may not violate the Rights to Life or Bodily Autonomy or produce commercial gain. Conscription for military or civil service in preparation for, or in time of, war is not considered enslavement or involuntary servitude.

Slavery has been described as the Original Sin of our nation. When you think about all the other problems that we face today because of slavery at and before our founding, it’s hard to deny that description. On December 6, 1865, the United States ratified the Thirteenth Amendment. It outlawed slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States, except as a punishment for crime. I have copied that ban here.

Unfortunately, not all humans are good people. The exception that allows involuntary servitude as a punishment for crime is a back door to slavery. Convicts have been leased to private companies. Debt slavery was imposed for a short time. Even now, inmates are compelled to work, often for little or no pay. These incarcerated people carry out a range of tasks from farming to manufacturing to fighting wildfires. What’s worse, their labor benefits the state or private companies, which creates a financial incentive to imprison people.

This protection takes away the financial incentive, plus it does not allow the state to risk the life or limb of inmates in forced labor.

Conscription for military or civil service in preparation for, or in time of, war is not considered enslavement or involuntary servitude.

This Charter makes one exception to the ban on involuntary service. It doesn’t take much imagination to wonder how this ban matches up with conscription. During wartime, the survival of the nation and protection of the people may require mobilizing more of the population for defense than an all-volunteer service can support. Conscripts into either the military or civil service under these conditions are not considered involuntary servants according to this Charter.

Incarcerated Labor Compensation.  Any value generated by incarcerated labor must be placed in a secure, interest‑bearing trust for the incarcerated Person, disbursed upon release or to a beneficiary upon death. If the prison includes a paid commissary, all income must be made available for use in that commissary during the Person’s incarceration. The Government may not profit.

When a prisoner is compelled to work, they can’t be uncompensated. The state has to pay them for their labor. If there’s a paid commissary, wages have to be available for the commissary account. Any other wages from their labor have to be held in an interest-bearing trust until the inmate is released from prison or dies. There is a flat ban on the government realizing profit from a prisoner’s labor.

The reason for this is twofold. First, non-slave labor is paid labor. Second, the profit motive incentivizes incarceration for minor offenses. Making the government hand over any value generated by the prisoner eliminates that motive.

This protection is not “soft on crime;” it is hard on shadow slavery. How can the state logically condemn someone for theft or murder while participating in slavery?