California kept prison factories open. Inmates worked for pennies an hour as COVID-19 spread

California kept prison factories open. Inmates worked for pennies an hour as COVID-19 spread

Many legal scholars and civil rights advocates argue that contemporary prison labor is a form of slavery allowed by the 13th Amendment, which banned slavery and involuntary servitude “except as a punishment for crime.” The language was a compromise — a way to preserve slavery in a different configuration, said Michele Goodwin, chancellor’s professor of law at UC Irvine.