Bangladesh, Sept. 18 -- The United States likes to present itself as the land of freedom, a nation that abolished slavery and stood on the side of liberty. Yet the truth is more complicated, and for millions of incarcerated Americans, particularly Black men and women, freedom remains an unfinished promise. The 13th Amendment, long celebrated as the end of chattel slavery, still contains an exception clause that has enabled slavery to persist under a new guise: prison labour. What was once the plantation has been transformed into the prison industrial complex, and exploitation continues with devastating consequences for Black communities across the country.

When the 13th Amendment was ratified in 1865, it was hailed as the end of an era o...