Forcing prisoners to work was allowed by the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery. The practice of using convict labor outside of prisons came into being shortly after the end of the Reconstruction in 1876 as a way of controlling the formerly enslaved population who could be arrested on scant grounds, imprisoned, and their labor “leased” to any employer who wished to pay the prison system. An act of the Missouri legislature allowed the penitentiary in Jefferson City to begin the practice.
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