What is Peonage and how does it relate to the Prison Industrial Complex?

Peonage

Peonage is slavery by another name. A debtor who pays back their debt by involuntary servitude is called a "peon".

American English: in a historical and legal sense, peon generally referred to someone working in an unfree labor system (known as peonage). The word often implied debt bondage or indentured servitude.[1]

In the United States, it was historically and practically a crime in the south to be black. Vagrancy laws in specific and pig laws in particular are examples of how the peonage system was set up. If you were poor, you were a criminal. Enforcement of these laws in particularly was focused on non-whites. The original for-profit prisons were set up during this time, by utilizing a loophole in the 13th Amendment which states involuntary servitude is allowed as a punishment for a crime.

Prisoners were discovered to be a source of profit. This discovery ultimately led to what we now have as the prison industrial complex which expanded during the War on Drugs. The War on Drugs is not unsimilar to the pig laws and vagrancy laws of the past.

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peon
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagrancy_(people)
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution