Convict leasing

Type: Product

As of November 2026, Convict leasing has been mentioned in one podcast episode on Stuff You Should Know (Dec 2025). Central historical practice discussed as the episode's primary example of exploitative prison labor after the Civil War and into the 20th century.

Convict leasing was a system of forced penal labor that was practiced in the Southern United States, where private individuals and corporations could lease labor from the state in the form of incarcerated people, nearly all of whom were Black.