Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2020, published 109th ILC session (2021)

Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) - United States of America (Ratification: 1991)

The Committee takes note of the Government’s report and the supplementary information provided in light of the decision adopted by the Governing Body at its 338th Session (June 2020).

Article 1(e) of the Convention. Racial discrimination in the exaction of compulsory prison labour. In its previous comments, the Committee noted the information from the US Department of Justice showing the significant overrepresentation of African Americans and Latinos/Hispanics within US prison populations. It noted that a prison sentence normally involves an obligation to perform labour. The Committee also noted that, despite the absence of legislative action, various practical measures and policy initiatives were being taken at the federal and state levels to reduce racial bias within the criminal justice system. The Committee strongly encouraged the Government to strengthen its efforts to ensure that racial discrimination at the sentencing and other stages of the criminal justice process do not result in the imposition of racially disproportionate prison sentences involving compulsory labour, including through the adoption of federal legislation and the implementation of relevant policies and practices to address this issue.

The Committee notes the Government’s information in its report that, as a general matter, the US Constitution and US law prohibit the Government from discrimination against any individual or group on account of race. In the penal context, when prison labour occurs, it is only after individuals have proceeded through the various steps of the criminal justice process, including arrest, conviction and sentencing. No discriminatory distinctions are made among convicted individuals when obligations to perform labour are imposed. The Committee also notes the supplementary information provided by the Government, with reference to the most recent data published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, indicating that in 2018 the imprisonment rate of black residents was the lowest since 1989. The data further shows that the jail population in 2018 was 50 per cent white, 33 per cent black and 15 per cent Hispanic. From 2008 to 2018, the jail incarceration rate rose by 12 per cent for white persons and fell by about 30 per cent for black persons (down 28 per cent) and Hispanics (down 33 per cent). From 2008 to 2018, the imprisonment rate dropped by 28 per cent among black residents, 21 per cent among Hispanic residents and 13 per cent among white residents. However, the imprisonment rate of black men in 2018 remained 5.8 times that of white men, while the imprisonment rate of black women was 1.8 times the rate of white women.

The Committee also notes the Government’s indication that the purpose of the Convention is to suppress forced or compulsory labour as a means of discrimination, not to deal with discrimination, thus broader questions of possible discrimination in the criminal justice system are outside the purview of the Convention. The Committee once again recalls that, even where the offence giving rise to the punishment is a common offence which does not otherwise come under the protection of the Convention, if the penal punishment is meted out more severely to certain groups defined in racial, social, national or religious terms, and this punishment involves compulsory labour, the situation is in violation of Article 1(e) of the Convention. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide information on the measures taken or envisaged, both in law and in practice, to identify and reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system to ensure that punishment involving compulsory labour is not meted out more severely to certain racial and ethnic groups. It also requests the Government to continue to provide information on the results achieved in this regard.