02/18/2026
Puerto Rico abolished slavery in 1873 under Spanish rule without a “punishment for crime” exception.
The United States abolished slavery in 1865 through the 13th Amendment but preserved one:
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude… except as punishment for crime.”
That exception still governs.
After the U.S. invaded Puerto Rico in 1898, sovereignty transferred between empires not to the Puerto Rican people. Under the Territorial Clause (Art. IV, §3), Congress holds plenary power over U.S. territories.
In 1950, Congress passed Public Law 600 allowing Puerto Rico to draft a constitution but only if it aligned with the U.S. Constitution. In 1952, Congress required revisions before approval. Puerto Rico’s Constitution mirrors the 13th Amendment, including the exception.
Puerto Rico abolished slavery without exception in 1873. Yet constitutional approval in 1952 required alignment with a federal framework that preserved one.
This applies not only to Puerto Rico but to every U.S. jurisdiction: all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa. The clause is federal. Its reach is national and territorial.
The exception permits involuntary labor in prisons.
That labor operates through state prisons, federal prisons (including UNICOR), and private facilities under government contract. Prisons generate contracts, staffing budgets, healthcare systems, commissary revenue, and labor production. This economic interdependence is what we call the prison industrial complex.
After 1865, the exception enabled convict leasing, chain gangs, and racially targeted incarceration. Today, Black and Latino communities remain disproportionately imprisoned.
States and territories removing the clause matters. But as long as the federal exception remains, it governs every state and every territory.
If slavery is morally indefensible, why does an exception remain?
Abolition should not contain an asterisk.
