> the criminalization of drug users creates thousands of free prison workers.
The antislavery amendment* explicitly permits prison labor and this was put in as a sop to the former slave states. The later used this to reproduce their prior system de facto (look up Parchman and Angola prisons for much discussion of the sordid details).
Not surprising Jim Crow was an important part of this, and the use and deployment of drug laws (other than alcohol) began as part of this racial mechanism.
* 13th: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist..."
>and this was put in as a sop to the former slave states.
Citation please.
While the prison population was much lower at the time they were being used as municipal labor. The "except prisoners" loophole was intended to grandfather in that system so as not to turn upside down the prison systems of all the states in the union at the time.
Furthermore "a sop to the former slave states" was the last thing congress was doing at the time. They were far more interested in maximizing the legislate utility of time spent without having southern reps present to vote against northern interests. The threat of more states (MD, TN in particular) seceding was the line they were trying to walk up to but not cross.
Edit: Is my analysis wrong or just inconvenient? I would be very interested in any source that can show that the northern states included the prison exemption in the 13A as a means to give the south a way to cling to some part of their slavery economy as opposed to a pragmatic "we'd rather not upset our prison systems, we already have a war and lots of unrest on our hands" exemption.
The antislavery amendment* explicitly permits prison labor and this was put in as a sop to the former slave states. The later used this to reproduce their prior system de facto (look up Parchman and Angola prisons for much discussion of the sordid details).
Not surprising Jim Crow was an important part of this, and the use and deployment of drug laws (other than alcohol) began as part of this racial mechanism.
* 13th: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist..."