Rattling the Bars: Prison slavery in America

This year, 5 US states are considering amendments to their constitutions to remove language similar to the 13th Amendment. Historian Robert T. Chase joins Rattling the Bars to discuss what altering these state constitutions would really mean for incarcerated people.

Robert T. Chase is associate professor of history at Stony Brook University, State University of New York (SUNY). He is the author of We Are Not Slaves: State Violence, Coerced Labor, and Prisoners Rights in Postwar America (UNC, 2020).

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20 thoughts on “Rattling the Bars: Prison slavery in America

  1. What a liberal joke… prisoners are not slaves… they owe money to the state/society for being arrested, prosecuted, and being locked up… the price/cost of being locked up is why they work for a few dollars per hour… The inmate is paying off the bills THEY created. No one made them commit a crime… they made a choice, and working for a few dollars is the COST of that decision. The real conversation should be shifting import to prison manufacturing and pay the inmates $ 8.00 per hour for a 10 hour day. The inmates need to leave prison with a real skill and $ 20,000 in their pockets to rent a place and start over… Stop whining about slavery…

  2. Nothing personal, but it’s painful and tedious to me to try to follow what this man is saying. Great respect and an A for effort, but I need for a news anchor or narrator to speak clearly and understandably.

  3. The United States of America is the only country on the face of the planet with privately owned for-profit prison. The United States of America has 4% of the world's population and over 25% of all the world's prisoners. Local law enforcement is set up as a extra judicial tax collector for the county they serve.

  4. WoW!!! I had no idea there was anyone that thought like I did about the way prisons are an evil and illogical idea of rehabilitaion for folks who are intelagent and and hard working!! All They need is a little love along with some porpuse direction and motivation. With that they would rule thier worlds and in turn make our whole coutry and its people better. Love your Ideas. loving my new found family. Y'all keep doing what you do! This Amaeican apprisiates you very much. You keep speaking that truth!

  5. I used to say – If we give the bastards their slaves back like they so obviously want, maybe they will leave the rest of us alone. WRONG. These soulless ghouls will not stop until ALL of us are enslaved.

  6. Private prisons are the scourge of American society! Also private prisons should not be allowed to assist lawmakers in making any laws at all!

  7. Surprised you didn't touch on the fact that the State/Prison will give you a Bill that you need to pay to cover the costs of your imprisonment.
    As a Brit when i found out about this i couldn't believe it at first, you go to Prison to pay your Debt to society not to accrue a Debt by being imprisoned.
    A dude from Cali i was speaking to a number of Years back was telling me he had been in Prison for a number of Years and while he was in his Parents had both died and his Brother too and when he got out he was left family Home in the Will ect.
    Soon after he got out and was sorting out and moved into the House he got a Bill of the state for his stay in Prison which he could not pay as he could not get employment so after a some time had passed the state placed a Lien on the House forcing him to sell to pay his Prison Bill.
    I don't understand how you accept this as a country, you go to Prison, allegedly to pay your Debt???????

  8. (Not so) Fun fact: There are more black men imprisoned in the U.S. than their are women int he ENTIRE WORLD!!

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