Penal labor in the United States reaches far beyond prison workshops and roadside chain gangs. This practice, which involves forcing incarcerated people to work, has been deeply connected to slavery and the country’s longstanding struggle over what punishment should allow.
The US Constitution has been the foundation that allowed penal labor to be put into practice. New criminal laws were put in place after the Civil War, and they instigated a new wave of servitude for the US government. But what, exactly, does this entail? And how does it still affect the country today? Click on to find out.