13th Forward:

“We urge the passing of the Prison Labor Justice and Dignity package, which will end forced labor for good and extend fundamental wage protections to all incarcerated New Yorkers, including the right to be paid the state minimum wage.”

Introduced by a mentor, I had the opportunity to meet with a coalition dedicated to ending the practice of underpaid prison labor as it relates to the exception to slavery in the 13th amendment. They provided the following brief:

“We wanted to make clear from the coalition’s name that we are addressing slavery – hence the “13th”. The “Forward” is intended to allude to our coalition’s goal of finishing the work of the 13th Amendment by putting a formal end to slavery (at least here in NY, for now). We’d love to have a logo that captures some of that spirit – forward looking, empowering, liberatory, ending slavery and worker exploitation.”