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Mass Incarceration and the 13th Amendment

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.

13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, 1865

A lot of people think that slavery is over, but it is not. Anyone who has been convicted of a felony in this country becomes a slave of the state, and you lose your human rights and in most cases your citizen rights for a long time, in some cases forever.

Albert Woodfox, 2017

A man is talking to the camera about data in the policy around prisions.

The Sentencing Project created this public service video to increase awareness about systemic problems in the U.S. criminal justice system. The Sentencing Project was founded in 1986 and seeks “...effective and humane responses to crime that minimize imprisonment and criminalization of youth and adults by promoting racial, ethnic, economic, and gender justice.”