That slavery was never actually fully abolished? In the wording of the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution lies a loophole that would come to be known as the 'Exception Clause'. It 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."

 

This exception effectively legalized slavery as long as you were convicted of a crime. Following the Civil War and the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865, Southern states quickly responded by imposing "Black Codes" - new laws that explicitly applied only to Black Americans and subjected them to criminal prosecution for petty, arbitrary "offenses". This was done specifically to facilitate their arrest, imprisonment, and re-enslavement, to continue the forced labor that the South was so heavily dependent on. The incentivized incarceration of Black Americans increased exponentially in order to meet the labor needs of former slave owners, as well as the demand for convict leasing, where prisoners were leased in bulk to work for corporations and plantation owners, who enjoyed cheap labor, while the states enjoyed a lucrative new source of revenue.

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(Essentially, the criminal justice system colluded with plantation and business owners to

entrap, convict, and lease out black prisoners for hard labor.)

 

The exploitation and profiteering from "slaves of the state" continued to drive the over-incarceration of Black Americans throughout the Jim Crow era, and, by creating a financial incentive for mass incarceration, reinforced expanding policies such as the War on Drugs, minimum-sentencing practices, severe plea deals, and three-strike laws that continue to worsen the problem of mass incarceration today. 

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