The Unitarian Universalist FaithAction NJ Criminal Justice Reform (UUFANJ CJR) task force is urging support for New Jersey SCR135/ACR125, the concurrent resolutions to make slavery and involuntary servitude illegal in New Jersey.
Here are some resources to learn more about this issue:
Reports
The UUFANJ CJR position paper (fact sheet) can be printed double-sided on a single sheet to hand out in UU congregations.
The ACLU provides important information about the exploitation of incarcerated workers and the ACLU’s recommendation (page 84) to end slavery. Learn more and download the report Captive Labor: Exploitation of Incarcerated Workers.
Convicted: How Corporations Exploit the Thirteenth Amendment’s Loophole for Profit is a November 2022 report from Corporate Accountability Lab.
Verite provides a report “Work Behind Bars: Analysis of Prison Labor in the United States based on International Labor Organization standards”.
Other efforts and organizations working to abolish slavery
“End the Exception“, a campaign managed by Worth Rises and part of the Abolish Slavery National Network, provides Information about the national efforts to end the exception through the Abolition Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The proposed amendment died in committee in the last congress and was re-introduced in June 2023, sponsored by Senator Jeff Merkley (OR), Representative Nikema Williams (GA-05), and Senator Cory Booker (NJ).
Both Worth Rises and Abolish Slavery National Network work at the state level as well as on a national level. Bianca Tylek, Founder and Executive Director or Worth Rises, spoke with MSNBC about the issue in 2022. Abolish Slavery National Network has provided a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page.
Individual states have chosen to work to abolish slavery and involuntary servitude in all forms within their own constitutions since the exception clause still exists in the federal constitution. This is where UU FaithAction NJ’s efforts come in: to support abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude with no exceptions in the New Jersey state constitution regardless of the exception clause in the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
States that have amended their constitutions to end slavery include Colorado, Utah, Nebraska, Vermont, Oregon, Tennessee, Alabama, joining Rhode Island where slavery in all forms has been abolished since 1842. The joint resolutions in Nevada passed, and the question will be put on the ballot there in 2024. Legislation has been filed in California, Texas, Arkansas, New York, Ohio, and New Jersey to do the same, while progress on the push for legislation in Florida is on hold due to the political climate there. The bill in Louisiana failed in the Senate. Campaigns are currently underway in Virginia, Kentucky, Iowa, and Maine as well.
Both he NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Vera Institute of Justice offer additional information in support of ending the exception.
Podcasts, Movies, and Videos
13th is 2016 documentary film by director Ava DuVernay, available on Netflix or to watch free on YouTube.
“Forward Justice” provides questions that can be used as guidelines for group discussions after watching the 13th documentary.
Slavery By Another Name on Youtube is based on the book by Douglas A. Blackmon.
In the April 16 episode of the Abolition Today podcast , NJ slavery abolitionists Dennis Febo and Antonne Henshaw speak about this issue. Abolition Today can be found here, as well as on most podcast platforms.
Books
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color-Blindness by Michelle Alexander.
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon
Worse than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice by by David M. Oshinksy
Slave State: Evidence of Apartheid in America by Curtis Ray Davis (one of the organizers in Louisiana)
Slaves of the State: Black Incarceration from the Chain Gang to the Penitentiary by Dennis Childs
Articles
From “Source NM” in 2022, originally published in “The Conversation”: The 13th Amendment’s fatal flaw created modern-day convict slavery
From The Washington Post in 2021: Loopholes have preserved slavery for more than 150 years after abolition
From “The Atlantic” in 2015: American Slavery, Reinvented