I hadn't thought about that before, but that's a very interesting point. The fact that such a high percentage of the prison population is black makes it hit home a little harder.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
I'm sure the prisoners take the former interpretation that involuntary servitude was not specified as punishment and thus is unconstitutional.
Also, the 13th amendment absolutely bans slavery, so if you can construe characteristics of ownership then you could make it unconstitutional. Georgia also has a history of abusing the law to keep slavery in all but name going which would negatively impact the states' case in a non-southern court, and would make a good case as to the intent of Georgian legislation being to revive slavery. I mean when they're trying to put the Confederate flag back on their flag it gives a person pause as to the intent of not paying their labor. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,85078,00.html
This is why most states pay their employees in prison a pittance rather than absolutely nothing. It avoids the issue entirely and makes it one of labor law.
Re-education through labor, not just for communists anymore!
It is also for capitalists. Georgia has a number of privately operated, for profit prisons. (It does not appear that any of them were involved in this strike.)
[ http://www.dcor.state.ga.us/Divisions/Corrections/PrivatePri... ] [ http://www.thegeogroupinc.com/ ] [ http://www.correctionscorp.com/ ]
"Contrary to the rosy picture of race embodied in Barack Obama's political success and Oprah Winfrey's financial success, legal scholar Alexander argues vigorously and persuasively that [w]e have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial segregation has been replaced by mass incarceration as a system of social control (More African Americans are under correctional control today... than were enslaved in 1850). Alexander reviews American racial history from the colonies to the Clinton administration, delineating its transformation into the war on drugs. She offers an acute analysis of the effect of this mass incarceration upon former inmates who will be discriminated against, legally, for the rest of their lives, denied employment, housing, education, and public benefits. Most provocatively, she reveals how both the move toward colorblindness and affirmative action may blur our vision of injustice: most Americans know and don't know the truth about mass incarceration—but her carefully researched, deeply engaging, and thoroughly readable book should change that."
If only they'd paid attention in their classes on the constitution... wait, all education for prisoners has been abolished, another thing they're protesting.
They are incarcerated for a reason (yes there are cases of innocence - but realistically, the majority of offenders are in there for a reason). Whether it was a crime out of necessity, passion or simply because the perpetrator was downright crazy - they committed a crime, and their legal rights should be minimized to a minimum without making it a case of human rights violations.
If a work or education program can be offered to help people possibly correct their lives, excellent - if rehabilitation is possible - great. But they should not have the same rights as regular law abiding citizens.
Involuntary servitude means you have no choice, not that you aren't fed in the process. Indeed, even slaves are usually fed and housed since they constitute an investment on their owners' part (usually not well fed or housed, of course). The camps where you were forced to work without eating were known as death camps, which fortunately would fall under the cruel and unusual punishment clause here.
Note all that extreme overcrowding, a lack of nutritious food as well as a lack of heating and cooling were mentioned in the demands. If they are correct, it's hard to imagine worse conditions aside from outright torture.
There are strict criteria, which you have to go out of your way to meet, that determine whether you're eligible to get in to a prison. It's easy to make the argument that everybody there is there by choice.
It's insane.