An Unfinished Journey:

Right to Freedom from Involuntary Servitude

The Thirteenth Amendment, prohibiting slavery and outlawing involuntary servitude, was passed in 1865. "Involuntary servitude" means a person is forced to work with little or no control over working conditions. This work might be paid or unpaid. For centuries, the exploitation of people with developmental disabilities in institutions amounted to involuntary servitude.

Not until the 1960s and 1970s were cases filed in federal court seeking to extend Thirteenth Amendment protections to people with disabilities and to enforce the Fair Labor Standards Act, a federal law requiring minimum wage and overtime compensation.

Minnesota studied the issue in 1964 and concluded that the state would have to hire 900 employees to replace the free labor provided by the patients. In response to this study and potential lawsuits, the state stopped using free patient labor. But it did not increase institutional staffing to provide needed employment, educational, or habilitative programming to patients during the day. This led to further dehumanization that continued until the institutions closed.

Right to Employment

People with disabilities who want to work and are capable of working have routinely been excluded from employment opportunities. In 1990, Congress found "overprotective rules and policies" and "exclusionary qualification standards and criteria" unfairly discriminate and deprive people with disabilities of "equality of opportunity, full participation … and economic self-sufficiency." It responded by enacting the ADA, which prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of disability. However, unemployment rates for people with developmental and other disabilities remain high.  

At Henry's Turkey Service, thirty-two men with developmental disabilities were paid 41 cents per hour.

Unfortunately, people with developmental disabilities are still subjected to involuntary servitude or other abusive employment practices. In 2013, an Iowa jury awarded $240 million to 32 men with developmental disabilities who were subjected to severe discrimination and abuse by Henry's Turkey Service in Iowa. They had to eviscerate dead turkeys in a meat-processing plant for 41 cents an hour. The 32 men were locked up at night in a rat- and cockroach-infested building that had been converted to a bunkhouse.

Photo: Two young boys sitting next to each other assembling popcorn boxes. One boy has very short hair and wears glasses with his back to the camera. The other individual is wearing a plaid shirt and suspenders. Photo courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society.

Photo: An individual with short blonde hair and glasses sitting at an office desk. Photo courtesy of Sherie Wallace, photographer.

Link to news item at https://www.eeoc.gov/newsroom/jury-awards-240-million-long-term-abuse-workers-intellectual-disabilities