>Section 1 Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the

>Section 1 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. >Section 2 Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. The above is the exact text of the 13th amendment outlawing slavery. It allows for a single exception to this, allowing slave labor when it is a punishment for a convicted criminal. Calling it anything other than slave labor seems to the inaccurate description to me. I find most Americans are squeamish to call it what it is because we've developed this national narrative that slavery is one of the worst things a society can allow(which I agree with) and that we fought a war to abolish it entirely(which I do not agree with). >...the inmates are paying off a debt to the society that they wronged. The imprisonment is paying off a debt to society. If they were entirely focused on infrastructure work, I could consider it paying off a debt to society. Producing all these consumer and luxury items for sale at profit does not fit under "paying a debt to society".[1] [1]https://theweek.com/articles/463364/11-products-might-not-realize-made-by-prisoners#:~:text=Military%20jackets%20and%20battle%20garb,craft%20body%20armor%20and%20holsters https://theweek.com/articles/463364/11-products-might-not-re....