You think slavery ended in America? Think again.

 We generally accept that slavery ended after the civil war, and African Americans were never again placed into a position where they'd be working for nothing.

This text, however, refutes that. In actuality, many in The United States believe that the penal system is in place not to "correct" offenders' errant behaviors, but to provide cheap or free labor. It's assumed that prisoners are given light jobs such as producing license plates and mailbags, but the truth is very different.

The Innocence Project takes a look at what goes on in Angola prison, Louisiana, where more than 5000 people still perform the work that slaves did more than two hundred years ago, and are paid a few cents an hour for it.

Is the penal system merely providing another section of society, disenfranchised from the rest, that we shun and throw out as unworthy, valueless citizens? Does that label, "convict" turn them into factory fodder, and ripe for exploitation? Or is our hatred of prisoners just one more manufactured prejudice?

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