HR 58 — 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.

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
 1   Urging the Congress of the United States to pass a
 2      constitutional amendment that provides that neither slavery
 3      nor involuntary servitude may be imposed as a punishment for
 4      a crime.
 5      WHEREAS, Ratified in 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the
 6   Constitution of the United States states, "Neither slavery nor
 7   involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof
 8   the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the
 9   United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction"; and
10      WHEREAS, The exception clause in the Thirteenth Amendment
11   created a loophole that has allowed for legal slavery to persist
12   in the United States of America; and
13      WHEREAS, After ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment,
14   states exploited this loophole by enacting laws, now commonly
15   referred to as "Black Codes," that allowed them to arrest and
16   imprison African Americans for minor offenses; and
17      WHEREAS, In addition, states engaged in convict leasing, a
18   practice where states leased prisoners to private contractors in
 1   exchange for revenue; and
 2      WHEREAS, The exception clause in the Thirteenth Amendment
 3   facilitated and incentivized the over-incarceration of African
 4   Americans and has led to our present moment where African
 5   Americans are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of
 6   White Americans; and
 7      WHEREAS, Even as states have phased out convict leasing,
 8   Federal law still requires all able-bodied Federal inmates to
 9   work, pushing hundreds of thousands of individuals into forced
10   labor; and
11      WHEREAS, In recent years, voters in Colorado, Utah, Nebraska,
12   Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont and Nevada have approved
13   ballot measures to remove provisions in their respective state
14   constitutions that allowed for slavery and involuntary servitude
15   as a punishment for crime; and
16      WHEREAS, On June 14, 2023, United States Senator Jeff Merkley
17   and United States Representative Nikema Williams introduced a
18   proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States that
19   reads, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude may be imposed
20   as a punishment for a crime"; and
21      WHEREAS, It is time for our nation to close this racist
22   loophole in the Constitution of the United States and end legal
23   slavery; therefore be it
24      RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the
25   Commonwealth of Pennsylvania urge the Congress of the United
26   States to pass a constitutional amendment that provides that
27   neither slavery nor involuntary servitude may be imposed as a
28   punishment for a crime; and be it further
29      RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be transmitted to
30   the President of the United States, the presiding officers of

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1   each house of Congress and to each member of Congress from
2   Pennsylvania.




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