Convict leasing was a system of prison labor used mainly in the Southern United States from 1884 until 1928. In convict leasing, state-run prisons profited from contracting with private parties from plantations to corporations to provide them with convict labor. During the term of the contracts, the lessees—rather than the prisons—bore all cost and responsibility for overseeing, housing, feeding, and clothing the prisoners.
While it was first used by Louisiana as early as 1844, contract leasing spread quickly after the emancipation of slaves during the period of American Reconstruction following the end of the Civil War in 1865.
