A national movement seeks to end what activists say is a slavery loophole in the federal and several states’ constitutions.
Nevada could soon join four other states that recently used ballot questions to remove “involuntary servitude” from their states’ constitutions. The change bans the use of forced prison labor, which civil rights advocates say is tantamount to slavery because it exploits inmates, paying them pennies for their work.
On Feb. 14, members of the Nevada Assembly’s Legislative Operations and Elections Committee approved Assembly Joint Resolution 10 that would ask voters whether to amend the state constitution to remove language that permits slavery or involuntary servitude as punishment for crimesThe Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.
If approved by the Nevada Legislature, the referendum question will go before voters in the 2024 general election.
“We’re talking about the designation of human beings as the personal property of other people. We’re talking about a complete loss of liberty, and of labor being compelled, forced without compensation, people being beaten, abused or killed without any consequence,” Democratic Assemblyman Howard Watts, the bill’s sponsor, said, according to The Review-Journal.
“I believe that it’s time for us to move forward and make it clear and unequivocal that nobody will ever live through the horror of state sanctioned slavery, or servitude ever again.”
Several state constitutions have language similar to the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified by Congress on Dec. 6, 1865, that states: “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.”
In November, voters in Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont authorized lawmakers to amend the involuntary servitude language in their states’ constitutions. But a similar ballot question failed in Louisiana.
Meanwhile, in California, state Assemblymember Lori Wilson announced on Feb. 15 the re-introduction of legislation named the “End Slavery in California Act” to ban forced prison labor, The Sacramento Bee reported. Lawmakersrejected a similar measure last year.
California’s corrections system has nearly 65,000 work assignments for inmates, including work maintaining correctional facilities and work with private companies to manufacture clothes, furniture and other goods, according to The Bee. Inmate wages typically range from 8 cents to 37 cents an hour.
A national movement seeks to end the slavery loophole. Seven states have removed the involuntary servitude exception from their states’ constitution, beginning with Colorado in 2018, followed by Utah and Nebraska in 2020, according to the Abolish Slavery National Network.
Four states already have legislation introduced in 2023, and more states expect ballot initiatives before 2024 elections.
At the federal level, Georgia’s Democratic Rep. Nikema Williams has been a leader on this issue. In 2021, she sponsored legislation to amend the U.S. Constitution that would prohibit the use of slavery and involuntary servitude as a punishment for a crime.
