Slavery in the 21st century? Say what?!

There are so many complex social issues happening right now in the United States, and the world, from sex trafficking to gay rights and even human rights. The one social issue that seems to go unnoticed is slavery in the 21^st century (in the United States of America.)

Many tend to believe that slavery was abolished with the 13^th amendment when in fact, slavery did not end; slavery merely took on a new face. According to the 13^th amendment (Section 1), “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, EXCEPT AS PUNISHMENT FOR A CRIME, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Slavery did not end with the 13^th amendment; the 13^th amendment only gave slavery a new form.  The new face of slavery in the 21^st century is the Prison Industrial Complex.

There is no one discipline, or two, who could adequately address this issue of modern day slavery, but the two who could make the most sense of it would be the educators of our children and economist.

Educators see children falling through the cracks of the educational system daily, being funneled directly into the prison system. Prisons are going up faster than universities nationwide, because they are being built based on the reading level of 3^rd graders. It is a known fact that if you can’t read then you can’t write, and if you can’t write you are thereby unemployable. The educators of our children must be held personally responsible for undereducated children. They must be held to a higher standard to ensure that no child is left behind, and their pay should depend on it.

Economist understand supply and demand when it comes to our economy and what makes it prosperous. Economist would provide a great back drop into how the funding going into the Prison Industrial Complex, and the profits being made by these big corporations who own these privatized prisons, plays a major part in keeping modern day slavery alive. Everything, in fact, is about the dollar bill.

There are many who have much to gain by modern day slavery, many whom without the Prison Industrial Complex would lose a lot of money. There are many law makers, politicians and corporations who have a stake in the Prison Industrial Complex. They make big profits on the free labor. Prisoners take on a lot of roles and duties that make life much easier for us on the outside. They make the tags on our vehicles, the machinery used by the military, and are customer service representatives for your wireless telephone company. The wretched part is that when they are released from prison, the companies who once employed them while imprisoned will not look twice to hire them when they are free.

Everyone is a stakeholder! There is not one who doesn’t benefit from the Prison Industrial Complex in some way, but there is also not one who doesn’t suffer from it in some way. Families are being torn apart by modern day slavery and we all, at some point, have to come in contact with those people impacted. Our communities are, and will always be, at risk of unbalanced homes and displaced children if we don’t soon get this under control.

The only solution to this issue is to make slavery totally illegal under all pretenses. This would include the mandatory closing of all privatized prisons, especially those in contract with the state to have mandatory occupancy of 80-100%. Citizens must also wake up and become conscious of what is happening around them and realize the impact the Prison Industrial Complex is having on men, women and even children. The issue must stop getting swept under the rug as a “black issue,” and as a community of people we must comprehend that slavery is real and alive in the 21^st century, in the United States.