Mississippi and a number of other Red states have found a way to recreate slavery. That's right, slavery. The United States has the largest incarceration rate in the world, over 2 million men and women, skewed very strongly to non-White prisoners. The overall rate has been going down slightly because Blue states are cleaning up their act although they still have a long way to go, while in Red states it is goingin the opposite direction. It is extremely expensive, however, costing more than $30,000 to incarcerate a single individual each year, more than it would cost to send that person to college for that same year. What to do? For Red states, the answer is enforced labor. According to the ACLU and Global Human Rights Clinic, the average wage nationwide for incarcerated workers who maintain prison facilities ranges from 13 cents to 52 cents an hour. Slavery in all but name, and Mississippi is so bad the federal government has stepped in, as this report from the Justice Department outlines.

For more information about the Civil Rights Division and the Special Litigation Section, please visit https://www.justice.gov/crt/special-litigation-section.Additional information about the Northern and Southern U.S. Attorneys’ Offices is available at: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndms and https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdms. You can contact the Northern District’s Civil Division at (662) 234-3318, and the Southern District at (601) 965-4480. You can also report civil rights violations to the Section by completing the complaint form available at https://civilrights.justice.gov/.