As Punishment for Arrests: Involuntary Servitude Under the Housekeeping Exception to the Thirteenth Amendment

The Thirteenth Amendment reads: “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.” Yet, in contemporary American jails and prisons, pretrial detainees have been forced to perform work for these carceral facilities despite not being convicted of a crime. When tasked with assessing the constitutionality of such pre-conviction labor policies, courts employed a narrow reading of the Thirteenth Amendment and ruled that jails and prisons can compel pretrial detainees to perform maintenance and operational tasks under the judicially-created “housekeeping exception.” In this Note, the author delves into the historical development and courts’ modern applications of the housekeeping exception and analyzes how the exception undermines the purpose and text of the Thirteenth Amendment. The author then advocates for both judicial and legislative action to overturn or, alternatively, limit the housekeeping exception, thereby preventing further Thirteenth Amendment violations within the U.S. penal system.