The words of the 13th Amendment connect the institutions of prison and slavery. That constitutional amendment prohibited slavery for African-Americans but preserved involuntary servitude for those duly convicted of crimes. In other words, prisoners can be sentenced to forced labor and are not entitled to compensation for their involuntary servitude. The 13th Amendment draws a line between slavery one does not deserve and slavery one has earned through criminal behavior.

There has always been a connection between criminals, prisoners, and slaves. Prisoners and slaves are the lowest ranking segments of a society. Criminal punishment throughout history sometimes involved being sold into slavery. Indentured servitude in the North American colonies commonly resulted from misdemeanor convictions in Great Britain and other European countries. Ancient societies enslaved indigent debtors and war captives.

The roles of prison and slavery changed dramatically with the abolition of slavery and the exponential growth of modern incarceration in America. But the similarities are still there. Some things never change. Prisoners and slaves live under the strict control of others, tend not to be well educated, have markedly reduced freedom, often dream of escape, and survive on the bottom rung of society. Guardians and slave owners seek to keep their charges out of trouble. Slave owners in the US worked with their slaves, but keepers in modern times often don’t have that option, because restrictive legislation strongly inhibits prison industries and work.

As a percentage of the population, the United States incarcerates five (5) times as many prisoners as the world as a whole. We incarcerate African Americans at much higher rates than other races. This leads to the observation that mass incarceration in the United States amounts to “New Age slavery.” A perpetual vicious circle seems to rule. Slavery in its different forms dies a hard death. It is more than a single institution. Instead, it is another way of saying that there will always be a lower class. The lowest, most vulnerable, or least powerful segments of society will often serve unwillingly. Revolutions and upheaval create new elites and different classes of slaves. Communist, fascist and other regimes sent millions to forced labor or death camps. International human trafficking now translates into millions of unfortunate slaves who work in very difficult conditions, some as sexual objects. Countries without law and order allow more slavery. Some people always occupy the lowest level of society and are kept there by force.

Prisons come in different forms. Some are rows of cells stacked on top of each other. Others are work camps, old plantations or minimum security housing complexes. Slaves also come in different forms. Slaves can be farm workers, prostitutes, debtors, industrial workers, or domestic employees. Slaves can be of the highest or lowest moral character. Slavery can be deserved or undeserved.

A common thread of slavery is the difference in power between masters and slaves. That enslaving power can be legal or illegal, driven by different motives and applied with various techniques. Slavery has existed in the worst tyrannies imaginable and in the United States of America after Americans selectively adopted and practiced the highest ideals of liberty and equality. The involuntary servitude we see in America today is often imprisonment. A criminal duly convicted of a crime becomes an involuntary servant or slave, although we now call our slaves “prisoners.” If we consider “slavery” as the lowest social rung, we must accept that some group always lives at the bottom.

Right now, that lowest social stratum is a jail and prison population of 2.3 million Americans and a national correctional population, including those on parole, of 7.3 million. We must judge a nation by the way it treats the least of its people. Some form of slavery or involuntary servitude seems inevitable in highly stratified cultures. The critical questions are how we create and treat our unwitting servers.