This commentary is the latest in “The Word from Solitary Watch,” our series of dispatches by Solitary Watch staff and contributors.

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After nearly 30 years in prison, 2025 brings me a different kind of Juneteenth than the average American. While San Quentin celebrates what formerly enslaved Texans learned in 1865—that they are free from slavery—last November, California voters told me that they are okay with keeping me enslaved. 

“Section 6 of Article 1 prohibits involuntary servitude except in punishment of a crime.”

A ballot measure to take the involuntary servitude clause out of the state’s constitution, and ban forced labor in California’s prisons failed to garner a majority vote. So it remains there, just as it remains in the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

I would have never thought that a southern state like Alabama would erase slavery out of its constitution before the Golden State. Although the decision by California voters is discouraging, it’s not entirely surprising. With the cooperation of far too much of the voting public, the government and the largely rich and privileged politicians who control it are, and always have been, exploiting Black and brown people in order to maintain an unjust social order, and to draw huge profits.

Currently, the federal government’s dismantling of the democratic infrastructure that serves America’s working class will result in further enriching the richest. As with so many other regressive social policies, these moves will disproportionately affect people of color.

Chief among these are the laws and policies that advanced mass incarceration, and the deceptions on which they are based. From Bill Clinton’s 1994 Crime Bill and California’s 1994 Three Strikes Law right up to the present, the messaging has been slick, leaving the public to believe that locking people up in places that do more harm than good is a workable solution to social problems that lead to crime. 

The result is that instead of spending tax dollars on solving underlying social problems, money is shoveled into prisons and jails to hide these social failures, and the Prison Industrial Complex benefits. These laws were never about reducing crime or restoring safety to communities, but rather, were made to keep low-income people of color from threatening a sense of obviously flawed political authority. 

Despite these laws being 30 years old, communities are not safer. Rather, people are taken away and warehoused in places where their bodies and souls can be contained and their labor exploited. We are educated to think that June 19, 1865, was the day that all enslaved people had their autonomy restored. But 160 years later, that is still not true. 

There are solutions that make far more sense. What if we decided to find ways to keep kids in school to graduate, all the while paying teachers what they are worth? Reality dictates that high school graduates tend to seek higher education, jobs, or vocations. They simply don’t wind up in jail or prison nearly as much as those who don’t finish their basic education—the so-called dropouts. Better educated women tend to earn higher incomes that benefit family wholeness, creating an environment that allows parents to parent in a stable home with decent healthcare. 

Yet, in my reality, I see that we fail in each of these categories, especially for families of color. I live among people who are the products of these failures. So many suffer from substance use disorders and mental health issues that, for the most part, have led to crime. I am watching an aging population of neglected Americans struggle to right their wrongs by taking accountability for their pasts, paying their debts to society, and trying to get back to their families. In a couple of years, I’ll be 70 years old, so I know how often we are denied those opportunities.

Juneteenth is meant to be a celebration that elevates core American values, such as freedom and individuality. In theory, at least, Americans are keen to show that they respect differences: our religions, races, and creeds, our genders and ways of life—all are supposed to be equally protected. We consider these inalienable rights, which is why slavery in any form, for any American, has no place in the Land of the Free. 

But while we celebrate a freedom message, reality dictates that nearly 2 million Americans have been transplanted into slavery via mass incarceration. Despite making up only 13.4 percent of U.S. men and 13.8 percent of U.S. women, Black men represent over 40 percent of the male prison population and 43 percent of those in solitary confinement, while Black women account for over 21 percent of incarcerated women and 42 percent of women in solitary confinement, These stark disparities are no coincidence; they reflect the legacy of state-sanctioned slavery in mass incarceration, and its disproportionate impact on Black Americans. 

Incarceration takes away my freedom; it should not also deny me my constitutional rights as an American citizen. I am entitled to maintain such precious rights as freedom of speech, freedom to worship God as I see her, and freedom from cruel and inhumane punishment. As an American, I deserve to be delivered from slavery, just as my ancestors were on the original Juneteenth. 

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Read selected earlier dispatches:

• What, to the Incarcerated American, Is Your Election Day?
• Trusted Sources: Why Mainstream Media Needs Incarcerated Voices
• Why Counting Everyone in Solitary Confinement Matters
• Prisons Are Where America Buries Its Problems. Solitary Confinement Is Where Prisons Bury Theirs.
• When Solitary Is Used to Silence
• Dismantle Prisons or Improve Conditions? As Someone Inside, I Know We Must Do Both
• Torture Before Trial
• The “Voiceless” Do Have Voices. Are We Listening?
• The Myth of Safety Through Punishment

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Banner photo: Incarcerated people in Louisiana working in a field under the threat of punishment