Slavery as punishment for a crime is specifically allowed in the Constitution. The high incarceration rate for former slaves is not a coincidence. Former slaveowners retained their positions of power after the civil war and have worked tirelessly to bring back what they see as the natural order of things.
What is amazing to me is that this comment 20 years ago would have seemed like an unhinged rant, but today, with all that has happened in the last decade, rings as painfully true.
How can such things exist in a civilized country. Where I come from and where I live I think what is described would qualify as modern slavery.
See:
- https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...
- UN Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29): https://www.un.org/ruleoflaw/blog/document/forced-labour-con...
- See Article 4, European Convention on Human Rights: https://www.echr.coe.int/documents/convention_eng.pdf