"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."
- 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
While the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, passed on January 31, 1865, is thought to have ended slavery in the United States, Ava DuVernay's documentary, 13TH, clearly demonstrates that this is not true. A major exception was included in the amendment which allowed slavery to continue within the criminal justice system under the guise of incarceration. The documentary utilizes startling statistics and interviews with activists, authors, and leading scholars in a variety of subjects to clearly show the connection between the 13th Amendment's failure to completely abolish slavery and the current prison industrial complex in the United States. DuVernay explores the history of the criminal justice system in the U.S. since 1865 and analyzes policies like the "war on drugs" which unfairly targeted communities of color and facilitated mass incarceration.
