Kent State Online

Penal labor in the U.S. is explicitly allowed by the 13th Amendment of our Constitution. The amendment outlaws slavery or involuntary servitude in the U.S., except when serving as punishment for a crime where the person has been “duly convicted”. In the most generous light, you could see this as a way to provide training and work to inmates, but in reality, it’s often used in the U.S. to close budget gaps with cheap labor and to offset the cost of running a prison.

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In 1996 Congress passed the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) to decrease the instances of litigation brought to the courts from incarcerated people. For the 25 years since the PLRA was signed into law by President Clinton, prison reform and advocacy groups have challenged the act as another obstacle to justice for the nearly 2.3 million prisoners in the U.S.1, specifically by denying equal access to the courts of the United States.

As with jobs in all industries, jobs in the public sector have certain advantages and disadvantages. While each person might have their own opinion of what constitutes a positive or negative aspect of any career, read on for our take on the pros and cons of working in the public sector.