Reply To: Should Criminals Be Sold As Slaves?

Joseph, the 13th Amendment refers to involuntary servitude, not slavery per se. Convicted criminal do, in fact, perform mandatory labor and are, in some States, “rented out” to perform such labor for private entities. As far as selling them as chattel slaves, to whom could they be sold? Once sold, they would no longer incarcerated and subject to the 13th. so no private or corporate entity could legally own them. Any such sale would be void ab initio .