Four states in the United States have voted to outlaw all forms of slavery.Louisiana voted to keep it – the people

Voters in Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont formally abolish all forms of slavery by voting to amend their state constitutions, making slavery and involuntary slavery a punishment for crimes. Removed legal exceptions that still allowed restrictions.

The initiative in Tuesday’s vote will not force immediate changes in state prisons where inmate labor continues to be used, but it will force prisoners to work under sanctions and the threat of loss of privileges. practices can lead to legal challenges. refuse the job.

But in Louisiana, voters rejected a proposed 7th Amendment that would amend the constitutional violations, partly because it could re-legalize slavery.

The Louisiana Constitution now “prohibits slavery and involuntary slavery, except in the latter case as punishment for a crime.” However, this does not apply to legitimate criminal justice administrations.”

The Democrat who first proposed the amendment, civil rights attorney Edmund Jordan, urged voters to reject the proposal. According to the Louisiana Illuminator, the text of the Amendment was watered down during the legislative process, allowing forced labor as part of the penalty.

The nonprofit Louisiana Improvement Council also urged voters to vote against the proposal, stating that the Seventh Amendment states, “How important it is to get the wording right when presenting constitutional amendments to voters.” It is an example that shows

Tennessee abolished all forms of slavery with 79.54% of the vote, according to Secretary of State polls.

The Tennessee Constitution now states, “Slavery and involuntary slavery are forever prohibited. Nothing in this section prohibits an inmate from working if he is convicted.” It’s nothing.”

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Alabama also removed its constitutional exception on slavery and, like Tennessee, added a section on prison labor.

Vermont, the first state to outlaw slavery in the United States in 1777, still permitted involuntary slavery “for the payment of debts, damages, fines, expenses, etc.”

Vermont now replaces that provision in its constitution with “all forms of slavery and indentured servitude are prohibited.” The bill passed with her 89% of the vote.

Oregon was a close second with 54% voting in favor of eliminating the exception to slavery. More than 600,000 people voted against the bill.

The Oregon Constitution prohibits slavery and involuntary imprisonment as criminal penalties, stating that “an Oregon court or probation or parole agency may provide an alternative to imprisonment for a convicted individual as part of a sentence.” Add a section that allows you to command

The results have drawn attention among anti-slavery supporters, including those advocating further amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which recognizes slavery and involuntary servitude as a form of criminal punishment in the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. was praised in

“Neither slavery nor involuntary slavery shall exist in or under the jurisdiction of the United States, except as punishment for a crime for which the party was duly convicted.”

More than 150 years have passed since enslaved Africans and their descendants were freed from bondage through the ratification of the 13th Amendment, but the exception to slavery is the availability of low-cost labor by incarcerated people. It continues to allow exploitation.

Scrutiny of prison labor has existed for decades, but loopholes in the 13th Amendment in particular have forced post-Civil War former Confederate states to devise new ways to maintain the dynamics of slavery. They used restrictive measures known as “black codes” because they almost always targeted black people to criminalize harmless interactions such as talking loudly or not yielding on the sidewalk. Did. Those targeted are detained for petty behavior and effectively re-enslaved.

Fast forward to today, when many incarcerated workers are earning pennies on the dollar, but that’s not expected to change now that some of these proposals have been successful.

— with files from The Associated Press

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