Nearly sixty years after the last state in the nation abolished slavery, Ohio’s Constitution still allows involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime.
Ohio lawmakers say enough is enough.
Reps. Dontavius Jarrells, D-Columbus, and Phil Plummer, R-Dayton, are spearheading a proposed amendment that would prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude in Ohio with no exceptions. If passed by the House and Senate, the measure would move to the statewide ballot to give voters the final say − something Jarrells would like to see happen next year.
“This founding document is a guide for who we are as Ohioans,” he said. “To have this language still exist in our constitution, what are we saying to people who look like me?”
Democrats previously tried to change the amendment, but this is the first attempt with bipartisan support. Thirty lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have already signed on to back the resolution.
Plummer did not respond to an interview request.
The rare consensus comes as Republicans and Democrats spar over a separate proposal to make it harder to amend the state constitution. Voters will decide in August if proposed amendments should pass with 60% of the vote, instead of a simple majority of 50% plus one.
Ohio could join national effort to abolish slavery exception
The debate over how to change the constitution brought renewed attention to the involuntary servitude amendment, first enacted in 1851. (Slavery was always banned in Ohio through the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.)
Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, criticized Oregon during an April committee hearing for changing its constitution to eliminate the exception for people convicted of crimes. He argued that would hinder the ability of courts to order community service or drug treatment for incarcerated individuals.
He then asked an opponent of the 60% threshold if she would want to make that same change to the Ohio Constitution.
“That’s not an endorsement of slavery,” Stewart said. “That’s a legal acknowledgement that when we put away a multi-mass murderer and tell him he’s going to pick carrots in Orient for the rest of his life, that might legally look something like slavery.”
Stewart declined to be interviewed.
Jarrells expressed disbelief over Stewart’s comments during the hearing, but he said he also used the exchange to inform his proposal. The resolution says Ohio courts and probation agencies can order people convicted of crimes to “engage in education, counseling, treatment, community service, or other alternatives to incarceration” as part of their sentence.
Like Oregon, several other states have voted to remove the exception clause from their constitutions. But the U.S. Constitution and over a dozen states still have that language in their founding documents, according to the Abolish Slavery National Network.
Critics of the provision say the vestiges of slavery remain today, particularly in a prison system that pays incarcerated individuals little to nothing for labor. Black people comprise 13% of Ohio’s population and nearly 45% of the the state’s prison population, according to Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction data from January.
“We can’t rewrite history, but what we can write is a better history for our children, grandchildren for years and generations to come,” Jarrells said.
Haley BeMiller is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
