• What does the exception clause actually do?​
  • It creates a mechanism in the legal process whereby the status of a free citizen is changed to one who is owned by the state. The lynchpin that assures this will happen is in the failure to disclose the status change to people who have been arrested.
• What about the 13th Amendment? Didn’t that abolish slavery already? 
  • The 13th amendment did not abolish slavery. It shifted slave ownership from individuals to the state when someone is convicted of a crime.
• People who have committed a crime should be punished.  How does removing the exception clause retain that goal? 
  • Punishment is accomplished by what the court orders, either in time behind bars, a fine, in community service, or in probation. Although the clause uses the word punishment, it is not really about punishment because ownership by the state is not connected to any details of the conviction (i.e., felony or misdemeanor). 
  • Punishment for a crime does not have to include inhumane treatment. In fact, inhumane treatment can be detrimental to learning a lesson because it aggravates anger and promotes more disenfranchisement.
  • In KY,  90% of convictions are plea bargain arrangements brokered by a white (95%) prosecutor and an individual (disproportionately black). There is no trial and no jury, and coerced agreements are not necessarily accurate reflections of what happened.
• What effect does slavery have on an individual? 
  • For each year of incarceration, a person’s life span is cut short by two years. 
  • People who are incarcerated have higher rates of chronic illness than the general population. 
  • After incarceration, a person is 10 X more likely to be unhoused.
• What does slavery look like today?
  • Slavery is always about ownership of a person. Today, it is evidenced by the state's license to use, abuse, and/or dispose of a person via inhumane treatment or exploitation, forced or coerced labor, excessive fees and fines. Additional punishments for in-prison behaviors may be carried out by guards. Any and all of these result in a loss of dignity and resources that might be used to forge a different path post-incarceration. This results in cyclic incarceration for longer and longer periods of time. Community re-entry is fraught with challenges.
• Work is good for people. How can we ensure people in prison will work if there is no way to make them?
  • People generally want to work. They want, and need, to have something to do in which they find meaning. Voluntary work that has meaning can be rehabilitative. Forced labor, on the other hand, is never rehabilitative, and in fact diminishes motivation and energy that are necessary for making positive behavioral changes.
• What are people in prison paid now, and what costs do they have? Don’t they get free room and board?
  • Incarcerated workers in KY earn from $0.42/day to $1.92/day.
  • People who are incarcerated pay room and board for their prison accommodations.
  • People in prison pay for everything from commissary (including basic health care items like toothpaste and maxipads) items to phone calls or other communications with family members to court fees, drug testing fees, to parole and probation supervision fees. 
• How does the slavery exception clause impact families, communities, and the state? 
  • Enslavement continues throughout the lifetime via limitations on housing, education, healthcare, voting rights, and employment/career opportunities, making it difficult for people to re-engage with community in appropriate ways. These restrictions place an extra burden on us all. 
  • Families of incarcerated people experience higher rates of chronic illness than the general population. Children are adversely affected and are more inclined to act out at school and in the community. This leads to detention and eventual incarceration. Family finances plummet as they try to support their loved one behind the wall.
  • An analysis done by Edgeworth Economics about the effects of paying equitable wages suggests that after a short period of increased costs, everyone wins. People who are incarcerated are able to pay their bills and taxes. Families and communities are relieved of financial burden. And the state receivables go up.
• What about the 13th Amendment?  
  • There are plans to address the exception clause in the 13th Amendment also, but that will require enough states to ratify a change.
  • Nine states have removed all possibility of enslavement and involuntary servitude from their constitutions. KY joins 20 other states that have constitutional amendment campaigns in progress, and 5 other states are considering similar compaigns. All these will eventually add up to enough states to ratify a change to the 13th Amendment.