Curtis Davis knows what its like to be forced to work while incarcerated. Davis, who helped place measures to ban forced prison labor on ballots in five states this year, served more than 25 years at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly known as Angola.
While there, Davis told The Appeal, he was forced to pick cotton, okra, and other crops but was paid only 2 cents an hour. It was grueling work: He was forced to walk miles to and from the worksite, arriving at 7 a.m. and leaving at 5:30 p.m., frequently laboring in the hot, humid summers of New Orleans.
It was like I was teleported back in time, Davis said. Once cleared for work by a prison doctor, people incarcerated at Angola can be legally forced to workand subject to severe punishment, including solitary confinement, if they refuse. At least as of 2012, most imprisoned people at Angola were required to perform field labor for at least 90 days.
Davis said he saw people suffer from dehydration and exhaustion. Prisoners have complained of a lack of water. When he tried to refuse the work, he was told he could be compelled by force. Desperate, one day he purposefully dropped a weight on his foot to avoid the labor, he said. But when he went to the doctor, he said he was charged with destruction of state property.
I was like, I know my rights, Im not a slave, Davise said. And they say, But yes, you are.
The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections did not respond to multiple messages from The Appeal seeking comment on the working conditions at Angola and Daviss time at the prison.
The 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution bans slavery, but has a loophole that often goes unnoticed: Slavery is still allowed as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted. Many state constitutions, including Louisianas, include similar carveouts. Thats legal jargon for, if we can get you convicted of a crime, we can put you back into slavery, Davis said.
When Davisnow a founding member and executive director of the grassroots criminal justice reform organization Decarcerate Louisianawas released from Angola in 2016, he swore to do everything he could to repeal the 13th Amendment. But a change to the U.S. Constitution requires approval by two-thirds of each chamber of Congress, as well as ratification by 38 states. To make progress toward those goals, Davis and other advocates are waging a state-by-state campaign to alter state constitutions so that they no longer enshrine slavery for people in prison. Now they face a big test of their efforts: On Tuesday, voters in five statesAlabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermontwill weigh in on ballot measures to amend their constitutions and eradicate slavery.
The language for each measure varies significantly by state. Some proposals appear to be stronger than others. In Alabama, residents are being asked to vote in favor of a much larger revamp of the state constitution that includes eliminating the provision allowing slavery in cases of conviction. A yes vote in Oregon would repeal language allowing servitude for the punishment of a crime, but allow a court to order people into education, counseling, treatment, community service, or other alternatives to incarceration[.] Tennessees ballot measure proposes amending the constitution to say that slavery and involuntary servitude are forever prohibited, but the proposed language contains a carveout noting that the section would not prohibit an inmate from working when the inmate has been duly convicted of a crime. Vermonts language is the cleanest: Voters there would amend their constitution so it simply states that slavery and indentured servitude in any form are prohibited.
Davis is the lead organizer for Louisianas Yes on 7 campaign, which refers to Amendment 7 on that states 2022 ballot. The ballot language there is arguably the most complicated, following efforts by organizers to bring Republican lawmakers on board by trying to clarify that people wouldnt be able to use passage of the ballot measure to challenge their convictions. Louisianas current constitution states that slavery and involuntary servitude are prohibited, except in the latter case as punishment for a crime. The updated language, if passed, would still state that slavery and involuntary servitude are prohibited, but would include the caveat that the section does not apply to the otherwise lawful administration of criminal justice.
Some are concerned a judge could use that to sentence people to slavery or otherwise expand its use. Democratic state Representative Edmond Jordan, who represents Baton Rouge and initially sponsored the proposal, has since turned around and disavowed the measure.
The way that the ballot language is stated is confusing, Jordan told the Associated Press. And the way that it was drafted could lead to multiple different conclusions or opinions.
Davis disagrees with these arguments. This is disingenuous at best and intellectually dishonest at worst, he said at a virtual press conference in October. If slavery and involuntary servitude are prohibited period, then the otherwise lawful activity of the criminal justice system would be something other than the two outlawed first parts of our amendment.
Davis and other advocates have lobbied the state legislature to act but have faced repeated defeats. A bill first introduced in 2021 did not make it out of committee. One state representative, Republican Alan Seabaugh, called it one of the most dangerous bills he had seen that session.
Now advocates want to let the people decide whether or not Louisiana should be a slave state, Davis said.
If the ballot measure passes and accomplishes what Davis hopes, it will be a particularly potent symbol. Louisiana has the nations highest incarceration rate. And anyone convicted of a felony and sent to prison there is also technically sentenced to hard labor. Prison work in the state dates back to before the end of the Civil War, when Louisiana built its first penitentiary and then leased out the prisoners to work for slaveholders. Angola itself is on a former slave plantation, and when the state took control in 1901, those incarcerated were housed in old slave quarters and forced to work in the existing cotton fields.
I was like, I know my rights, Im not a slave, Davise said. And they say, But yes, you are.
The 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution bans slavery, but has a loophole that often goes unnoticed: Slavery is still allowed as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted. Many state constitutions, including Louisianas, include similar carveouts. Thats legal jargon for, if we can get you convicted of a crime, we can put you back into slavery, Davis said.
Awful, but unsurprising. You know certain factions would like to extend these laws if they could.
Desperate, one day he purposefully dropped a weight on his foot to avoid the labor, he said. But when he went to the doctor, he said he was charged with destruction of state property.