The Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations (OGR) has urged the U.S. Congress to eliminate the loophole in the 13th Amendment that permits slavery for convicted prisoners.
When the amendment was passed and ratified by three-fourths of the states in 1865, it abolished slavery throughout the United States “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” That language remains in place today, and OGR issued an “action alert” February 15 calling for the loophole to be closed.
“Soon after the ratification of the 13th Amendment, the criminal justice system began subjecting prisoners to dangerous slavery-like working conditions without compensation,” OGR wrote. “A system of ‘Black codes’ was implemented in the South to arrest on false or minimal charges, such as vagrancy, so that they could be convicted and leased by the state for labor. Through the 1930s, states put their prisoners to work at private railways, mines, and large plantations through ‘convict leasing.’”
Although some of the worst abuses have been abolished, involuntary servitude is still common in prisons, sometimes under “horrific conditions,” and “viewed by many as contributing to the for-profit, private prison system,” the alert said. “The amendment’s exception preserves unjust remnants of our country’s legacy of slavery and allows for the undue suffering of many of God’s beloved children.”
Rebecca Blachly, who leads the seven-person OGR team in Washington, announced the alert during a weekly network call conducted via Zoom. The half-hour presentations every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern are must-see TV for Episcopal policy geeks and others interested in the church’s public policy stands. Participation is through registration.
Blachly has often explained that OGR “is a creature of General Convention,” in that the office only gets involved in issues where the General Convention has taken a public-policy stand. That leaves plenty of topics on the table, as the office keeps track of some 600 past resolutions. In this case, the 2018 General Convention passed Resolution D013, creating a task force to develop strategies to remove the loophole.
She acknowledged that amending the Constitution is “a heavy lift,” but there is a House resolution with 52 cosponsors calling for amending the 13th Amendment. OGR provides sample language to enable Episcopalians and others to urge their representatives to join the effort.
Kirk Petersen began reporting news for TLC as a freelancer in 2016, and was Associate Editor from 2019 to 2024, focusing especially on matters of governance in the Episcopal Church.
