The 13th Amendment of the US Constitution, adopted in 1865, explicitly allows penal labor as it states that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." (33)(34) Unconvicted detainees awaiting trial cannot be forced to participate in forced rehabilitative labor programs in prison as it violates the Thirteenth Amendment.

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From 2010 to 2015(40) and again in 2016(41) and 2018(42), some prisoners in the US refused to work, protesting for better pay, better conditions and for the end of forced labor. Strike leaders have been punished with indefinite solitary confinement.(43)(44) Forced prison labour occurs in both public and private prisons. The prison labour industry makes over $1 billion per year selling products that inmates make, while inmates are paid very little or nothing in return.(45) In California, 2,500 incarcerated workers fight wildfires for $1 an hour, saving the state as much as $100 million a year. (46)