Will County Gazette

An Illinois House resolution that would urge U.S. Congress to end free, cheap, forced prison labor cleared the House earlier this month. 

House Joint Resolution 7 supports the passing of the Abolition Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which would remove the punishment clause, otherwise known as the slavery loophole, from the Thirteenth Amendment. 

State Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) discussed the resolution on the House floor with Rep. Mary Flowers (D-Chicago) on May 5. 

"I just have a quick question for you because I want to fully understand, and we've gone back and forth on side on our side trying to understand exactly what you're trying to do here," Batinick asked. "Would this prohibit the state of Illinois from requiring people who find themselves in prison from doing work?"

Flowers responded that, no, it does not take away the state's power to require inmates to work. It instead adds the requirement that inmates start being appropriately compensated so they can support their families and have a better likelihood at restarting life outside of prison.

Flowers said that the amendment is part of an attempt to end institutional racism. 

"This resolution is saying that slavery in the United States should never exist again, and that is the cause of institutional racism or one of the causes for racism in this country, and this resolution wants to eradicate that," she said. 

Batinick wanted it to be put in more simple terms.

"So, in other words, if a prisoner worked they would have to be paid then," he said. 

The Thirteenth Amendment was ratified in 1865 and, for the past century and a half, has allowed that "neither slavery or involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime" exist in the United States. 

According to the resolution documents, the annual value of American prison labor is $2 billion. Businesses including Walmart, AT&T, Whole Foods and Victoria's Secret have used free or cheap prison labor for their production.