Is involuntary servitude permitted in the US upon conviction of a crime?

Answer 1

Involuntary servitude is commonly known as slavery, but as Wikipedia defines it, involuntary servitude is "is a United States legal and constitutional term for a person laboring against that person's will to benefit another, under some form of coercion...involuntary servitude does not necessarily connote the complete lack of freedom experienced in chattel slavery..."

In other words, it can be mandated community service or something similar. So, yes, it is permitted, but ONLY as punishment for crime.

In depth explanation:

"In 1865 Congress enacted thehttp://www.answers.com/topic/amendment-xiii-to-the-u-s-constitution, which the Union states ratified. Section 1 of the amendment provides that "[n]either slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." Section 2 gives Congress the authority to enforce the provisions of section 1.

The Thirteenth Amendment makes involuntary servitude unlawful whether the compulsion is by a government or by a private person. The penalty for violation of the amendment must be prescribed by law. Although the principal purpose of the amendment was to abolish African slavery, it also abolished other forms of compulsory labor similar to slavery, no matter what they are called. For example, it abolished bond service and peonage, forms of compulsory service based on a servant's indebtedness to a master.

An individual has a right to refuse or discontinue employment. No state can make the quitting of work a crime, or establish criminal sanctions that hold unwilling persons to a particular labor. A state may, however, withhold unemployment or other benefits from those who, without just cause, refuse to perform available gainful work."

sources: Wikipedia, http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Involuntary+Servitude