Reinventing the Black Codes, which incarcerated and hired out ex-slaves for vagrancy before Congress repealed the codes in 1866–67, convict leasing evolved as Democrats overthrew Reconstruction and “committed to using black convicts for internal southern development” (Cohen, 1991, p. 222).

Leasing became the New Slavery. Operating in an environment of limited tax revenues, states allowed private and public contractors to lease convicts. This helped reduce the cost of state and county prisons, collect revenue, and maintain white control. Planters and industrialists usually leased black prisoners, men and women. Lessees had sole custody of prisoners’ rations, hours in the fields or mines, and health. Abuses were rampant. Many inmates died from brutality, exposure, and illness, or in work accidents and escape attempts. They also served longer sentences for insubordination, ensuring that imprisoned laborers always would be available. State officials contended that habitually criminal blacks deserved their lot. Civil rights and penal reformers challenged that argument in the early twentieth century.