PRINTER'S NO. 503
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE RESOLUTION
No.58
Session of
2025
INTRODUCED BY KAZEEM, SANCHEZ, GIRAL, KHAN, HILL-EVANS, RABB,
CEPEDA-FREYTIZ, HOHENSTEIN, KENYATTA AND GREEN,
FEBRUARY 5, 2025
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY, FEBRUARY 5, 2025
A RESOLUTION
Urging the Congress of the United States to pass a
constitutional amendment that provides that neither slavery
nor involuntary servitude may be imposed as a punishment for
a crime.
WHEREAS, Ratified in 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States states, "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"; and
WHEREAS, The exception clause in the Thirteenth Amendment
created a loophole that has allowed for legal slavery to persist
in the United States of America; and
WHEREAS, After ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment,
states exploited this loophole by enacting laws, now commonly
referred to as "Black Codes," that allowed them to arrest and
imprison African Americans for minor offenses; and
WHEREAS, In addition, states engaged in convict leasing, a
practice where states leased prisoners to private contractors in
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18 exchange for revenue; and
WHEREAS, The exception clause in the Thirteenth Amendment
facilitated and incentivized the over-incarceration of African
Americans and has led to our present moment where African
Americans are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of
White Americans; and
WHEREAS, Even as states have phased out convict leasing,
Federal law still requires all able-bodied Federal inmates to
work, pushing hundreds of thousands of individuals into forced
labor; and
WHEREAS, In recent years, voters in Colorado, Utah, Nebraska,
Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont and Nevada have approved
ballot measures to remove provisions in their respective state
constitutions that allowed for slavery and involuntary servitude
as a punishment for crime; and
WHEREAS, On June 14, 2023, United States Senator Jeff Merkley
and United States Representative Nikema Williams introduced a
proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States that
reads, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude may be imposed
as a punishment for a crime"; and
WHEREAS, It is time for our nation to close this racist
loophole in the Constitution of the United States and end legal
slavery; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania urge the Congress of the United
States to pass a constitutional amendment that provides that
neither slavery nor involuntary servitude may be imposed as a
punishment for a crime; and be it further
RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be transmitted to
the President of the United States, the presiding officers of
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30 each house of Congress and to each member of Congress from
Pennsylvania.
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