The day before my cellmate left, we had a conversation about slavery, and we both agreed that it is alive and well in the United States today. Lest any of my readers be offended by that statement, it is most definitely not true, and certainly not meant in the traditional Southern plantation, African-American context. Anybody who knows me will tell you that I am not a racist and that I associate myself with people of all ethnicities and walks of life. No, the slavery to which I refer is truly insidious, because the populace at large is completely unaware of its existence and because it is unbounded by ethnicity. The slavery to which I refer is this" the United States enslavement of its citizens who are convicted of crimes.
Any American with but a scant education likely can tell you that slavery was abolished in this country during the Civil War by executive order - Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. A percentage of the whole may know that the abolition of slavery was incorporated in this country's constitution. But, I daresay that very few outside the fields of history, law or political science are aware of what our nations constitution actually says about slavery. Please allow me to enlighten you.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. US Constitutional Amendment XIII, sec. 1 (emphasis added). I strongly suspect that this provision is the root of chain gangs being sentenced to "hard labor" but I do not have the research material at my disposal to bear out my suspicion. Of course, in this day and age, chain gangs and hard labor largely are things of the past, at least here in Nevada. Their legacy in my opinion, is fighting wildfires (for minimum custody inmates) or yard labor positions, and a certain amount of voluntariness is involved. I cite the Warren Court of the 1960's and 1970's as the most prominent cause for the decline and disappearance of chain gangs and hard labor camps, as that court promulgated and vastly expanded the scope of prisoner's rights, but again, such a statement is made without benefit of research. Therefore we inmates, aside from those of us who fight wildfires or voluntarily accept a yard-labor job, are not longer slaves compelled to long hours of physical exertion under the scorching desert sun akin to those of yore who under threat of pain were encouraged to spend incredibly long hours out in the plantation fields picking cotton.
But that doesn't mean we aren't slaves. A surprising number of parallels exists. The correctional facility, be it camp, prison, transitional housing, or whatever, is our plantation. The warden is the owner of our plantation. the lieutenants are our foremen, and the correctional officers are the field hands who send us into the fields (order us about our day), watch over us and whip (discipline) us when we disobey their orders (or violate the rules and regulations). The housing units are the ramshackle buildings, fallen into disrepair, where we sleep and spend our lives when we aren't working. And, our work area and job assignments are our fields. We are even told when and what we can eat, if we're unfortunate enough to be unable to purchase commissary. Our lives are controlled and governed in almost every conceivable way, just like our African-American predecessors were in the pre-Civil War South.
To those who have no experience with the prison system, neither firsthand nor via contact with family or friends on the inside, indeed, what I've stated may come across as hyperbole, as gross exaggeration by one of the "oppressed". I invite them to use their imaginations and consider how much drearier their lives would be without many of the choices and freedoms which are taken so much for granted that they have become almost entirely unnoticeable. Imagine what it would be like to be told when you can eat breakfast. What about when you cannot go to work until you are told to do so, regardless of the time or of how late you would be? How about being confined to a space of less than 100 square feet for more than an hour at a time, with a constant companion of the same sex who is little more than a complete stranger, when you're not at work? Add to that being told when you can stand and when you can sit at least once each day. Dinner is a repeat of breakfast and so is lunch - if you're fortunate enough to be in a facility which provides a hot lunch. Had enough yet? I could keep going, but I think I've sufficiently made my point.
Some may argue that this isn't slavery, that the prison officials merely are standing in loco parentis to us inmates. Others may argue that prison is very similar to military boot camp. Perhaps. My childhood in my parent's home was similarly oppressive, at least from my point of view, though perhaps not quite as extreme. I have never been in the military so I have no firsthand experience with boot camp, but judging by what I've gleaned from various media sources, it too is similarly oppressive. Maybe slavery , child rearing, and military training are all the same or all variations on the same theme. But at least in this country, military training is a choice; you voluntarily enlist. And, the point of childhood is to prepare for adulthood; adults are not meant to be treated like children - just ask your teenager.
I am a modern day slave. So are my fellow inmates. We are the property of the State of Nevada, and our prisons are where slavery is alive and well in the 21st century.
