The Thirteenth Amendment provides, “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.” Professor Adam Davidson examines the Thirteenth Amendment’s Except Clause in his article, Administrative Enslavement.

Recent attention to the harms of mass incarceration and mass criminalization has included scrutiny of the Except Clause with many critics concerned that it permits the enslavement of incarcerated people. However, Davidson’s critique is a little different than the more common, wholesale disavowal of this clause. Davidson examines how courts have interpreted this clause, critiquing their reimagination of forced labor as merely a prison administrative matter.

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