Convict Labor: Kentucky Edition

How it Started

Convict labor has it's origins in the convict leasing systerm. The convict leasing system was a form of unpaid labor practiced in the southern United states. Prisons would lease inmates to private parties such as plantations, and the leasee was responsible for providing food, clothing, and shelter.  This practice became especially popular after the thirteenth amendment was passed.  The thirteenth amendment states "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."  The thirteenth amendment formally abolished slavery which left plantation owners in need of field workers.  However, the thirteenth amendment left a loophole for slavery "...As a punishment for a crime..." And thus convict leasing was born