What are the loopholes in the 13th Amendment?
Asked by: Jett Champlin | Last update: February 5, 2026Score: 4.8/5 (26 votes)
A loophole still in the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution allows slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime. This exception fuels a system where incarcerated people are forced to work for little or no pay, often under threat of punishment, while the state and private companies benefit.
What is the loophole of the 13th Amendment?
Engine of Modern Mass Incarceration: By facilitating and incentivizing the conviction of Black Americans for minor crimes, the 13th Amendment's loophole drove the over-incarceration of Black Americans, and especially Black men.
What was the problem with the 13th Amendment?
Goodwin, and others who have studied the issue, link the “punishment clause” of the Thirteenth Amendment to the growth of prison labor and the rise of mass incarceration and private, for-profit prisons. In the era of mass incarceration, convict labor has gone national without losing its racial character.
What is the exception to the 13th Amendment?
In the United States, the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime of which one has been convicted. In the latter 2010s, a movement has emerged to repeal the exception clause from both the federal and state constitutions.
What is the loophole in the 13th documentary?
The Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves, but the loophole which serves as thesis for the documentary (“except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted”) permitted the creation of a new 'criminal' population from which labour could be extracted.
Experts Explain the Slavery Loophole in the 13th Amendment | Amanpour and Company
Does the 13th Amendment still allow slavery?
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
What paradox did the Thirteenth Amendment create?
What paradox did the Thirteenth Amendment create? It allowed the South to return with even greater congressional representation than before the war. How did Radical Republicans perceive Lincoln's reconstruction policy? They rejected the Ten Percent Plan and demanded congressional oversight of Reconstruction.
What did Abraham Lincoln say about the 13th Amendment?
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." That evening, after signing the resolution, Lincoln described the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment as an " ...
Can prisoners refuse to work?
Incarcerated people who refuse to work or are unable to work are threatened with punishment. In state and federal prisons, refusal to work can result in disciplinary or administrative segregation—which often is a form of solitary confinement.
How many slaves did the 13th Amendment free?
It became effective the moment it was ratified by the required number of states on December 6, 1865. Four million slaves became free.
Who actually ended slavery?
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."
Was slavery unconstitutional before the 13th Amendment?
Even today, many still believe that, until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment prohibiting involuntary servitude, slavery previously had been constitutional, and for this reason, the original Constitution was deeply flawed.
Did the 13th Amendment make African Americans citizens?
Though the Thirteenth Amendment banned slavery in the United States, it did not give citizenship to African-Americans, nor did it give African-American men the right to vote.
What is the problem with the 13th Amendment?
6, 1865, that the 13th Amendment was ratified by the states, thereby becoming law of the land in 1865. Many people mistakenly believe this amendment ended slavery and involuntary servitude. It did not. It simply created mass incarceration, which is slavery by another name.
What is the 14th Amendment loophole?
The loophole is made possible by the United States' longstanding policy of granting citizenship to children born within its territorial borders regardless of whether the parents of such children have violated the nation's sovereignty by crossing the border illegally.
Why was slavery not abolished in the Constitution?
The framers of the Constitution believed that concessions on slavery were the price for the support of southern delegates for a strong central government. They were convinced that if the Constitution restricted the slave trade, South Carolina and Georgia would refuse to join the Union.
What does $20 get you in jail?
As such, the point which should be conveyed is that anything is of use. Even $20 a month can make quite a bit of difference in a prisoner's lifestyle. With $20 per month, the prisoner could at least purchase soap, quality toothpaste (and a quality toothbrush), and batteries for their radio.
What is the rule 43 in jail?
My Lords, the Prison Rule authorising temporary segregation—that is, removal from association with other prisoners—is Rule 43. In practice this Rule applies to two distinct classes of prisoner. The first is those prisoners—the majority—who, for reasons of their own, ask to be segregated.
What is the biggest problem in prisons?
Overcrowding, as well as related problems such as lack of privacy, can also cause or exacerbate mental health problems, and increase rates of violence, self-harm and suicide.
Was the 13th Amendment a success or failure?
However, abolishing slavery did not make blacks equal. The end of slavery did not bring an end to prejudice and racism, but these were not the aims of this amendment. For this reason, we can conclude that the amendment was a success.
What was Abe Lincoln's famous quote?
“Stand with anybody that stands RIGHT. Stand with him while he is right and PART with him when he goes wrong.” “I planted myself upon the truth, and the truth only, so, as far I knew it, or could be brought to know it.”
Who was against the 13th Amendment?
In April 1864, the Senate, responding in part to an active abolitionist petition campaign, passed the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery in the United States. Opposition from Democrats in the House of Representatives prevented the amendment from receiving the required two-thirds majority, and the bill failed.
What was prohibited under the Thirteenth Amendment?
Thirteenth Amendment, Section 1: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. See, e.g., Clyatt v.
When did black people become free?
Although Lincoln had announced the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier, freedom did not come for most African Americans until Union victory in April 1865 and, officially, in December 1865 with the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.
Is the 13th Amendment still relevant today?
Despite its significance in American history, the Thirteenth Amendment is not one of the more frequently invoked parts of our Constitution today. Now that slavery is a part of our past, the Amendment's current relevance is subject to debate. Does it govern the fairness of modern labor practices?