<p>BATON ROUGE — A Louisiana lawmaker has put forward legislation to amend the state’s Constitution to abolish forced labor as punishment for those convicted of a crime.</p>
<p>Rep. Edmond Jordan, D-Brusly, said Wednesday language effectively protecting the institution of slavery “should never have been there in the first place.”</p>
<p>“Anyone of good conscience should be embarrassed by this,” he said, adding if the legislature supports a constitutional amendment, the issue will be on the ballot in November 2022 and then go to voters for approval. </p>
<p>The 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, enacted in 1865, formally abolishes slavery. However, it includes an exception that allows slavery or involuntary servitude as punishment upon conviction of a crime. Many states, including Louisiana, have similar language in their own constitutions.</p>
<p>In the last two years, Colorado, Utah and Nebraska removed the clause and 12 other states have now announced plans to submit similar legislation this year. </p>
<p>In Louisiana, men and women in the state’s jails and prisons do everything from harvesting crops, sewing and printing brochures to doing janitorial work at the Governor’s mansion. </p>
<p>Curtis Davis, who spent 25 years at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, was among those who earned pennies a day working on the prison’s quail farm.</p>
<p>Davis, now executive director of the prison reform group Decarcerate Louisiana, said “no other industrialized country on the planet Earth actually has legalized slavery.”</p>
