Elected Leaders Push To End Indentured Servitude In State’s Prisons

By Robert J. Hansen | OBSERVER Staff Writer California State Assembly member Lori Wilson. Stock photo, OBSERVER Credit: Louis Bryant III Elected leaders, activists and experts gathered online Feb. 9 for a discussion on the movement to abolish indentured servitude from the California Constitution. The 13th Amendment of the Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in 1865 – except as punishment for a crime. “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,” the amendment reads. Since then it has led to the United States having the world’s largest population of incarcerated citizens. The U.S. prison population was 1,230,100 on Dec. 31, 2022, a 2% increase from 2021 (1,205,100), and 32% of persons sentenced to prison were Black while 31% were white, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. White people make up more than 75% of the U.S. population while Black people make up almost 14% of the population. As of January 2023, California is responsible for incarcerating about 95,600 people, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office. The number of people in prison or jail in...