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• 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 for a crime does not have to include inhumane treatment. In fact, inhumane treatment can be detrimental to learning a lesson about previous behavior because it aggravates anger and disenfranchisement.
  • In KY,  97% 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 many instances of coerced agreements that do not accurately reflect criminal behavior
• 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 evidenced by inhumane treatment or exploitation of a person, including forced or coerced labor, excessive fees and fines, and additional punishments 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 a cyclic incarceration for longer and longer periods of time. As in chattel slavery, there seems to be no escape.
• 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 $0.12/hr to $1.56/hr.
  • People who are incarcerated pay room and board for their prison accommodations.
  •  People in prison pay fees 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 would removing the slavery exception clause impact families, communities, and the state? 
  • Enslavement continues throughout the lifetime in 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.
  • 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.
  • Eight states have removed all possibility of enslavement and involuntary servitude from their constitutions, and two more states will have a ballot vote on similar changes in November. KY joins 20 other states that have constitutional amendment campaigns in progress. All these will eventually add up to enough to ratify a change to the 13thAmendment.