Voters in Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, and Vermont will be voting on changing this legislation.
The landmark 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, ratified on December 6, 1865, officially abolished slavery but allowed it to continue as a punishment in prisons against convicted felons.
For states in the former Confederacy, the loophole was a tool to maintain the dynamics of slavery, post-abolition, said AP.
But in some states, including Alabama, inmates get paid nothing for their work.
"For an entire generation, it put Black men and women back into slavery by incarcerating them and selling their labor to private corporations," said Chase.