OHIO LEGISLATIVE SERVICE COMMISSION
Office of Research Legislative Budget
www.lsc.ohio.gov and Drafting Office
H.J.R. 2 Resolution Analysis
135th General Assembly
Click here for H.J.R. 2’s Fiscal Note
Version: As Introduced
Primary Sponsors: Reps. Jarrells and Plummer
Effective date:
Ben Fogle, Attorney
SUMMARY
 Proposes to amend the Ohio Constitution to prohibit slavery or involuntary servitude as
punishment for a crime.
 Permits a court, probation agency, or parole agency to order convicted persons to
engage in education, counseling, treatment, community service, or other alternatives to
incarceration, as part of sentencing for the crime, to provide accountability,
reformation, protection of society, or rehabilitation.
DETAILED ANALYSIS
Involuntary servitude
The resolution proposes to amend the Ohio Constitution to prohibit involuntary
servitude in Ohio for the punishment of crime. Additionally, the resolution declares that there
shall never be slavery in the state of Ohio.
Currently, the Ohio Constitution prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude, except that
it permits involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime.
The resolution also permits a court, probation agency, or parole agency to order
convicted persons to engage in education, counseling, treatment, community service, or other
alternatives to incarceration, as part of sentencing for the crime, in accordance with programs
that have been in place historically or that may be developed in the future, to provide
accountability, reformation, protection of society, or rehabilitation.1
1 Ohio Constitution, Article I, Section 6.
July 19, 2023
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
This latter provision addresses continuing access to community service programs and
similar alternatives to incarceration as punishment for a crime, which otherwise possibly could
be considered “involuntary servitude.”
Election and effective date
The resolution specifies that the amendment will be submitted to the electors at the
general election to be held on November 7, 2023. If adopted by a majority of electors voting on
it, the amendment takes effect immediately.
Historical context
Article 1, Section 6 of the Ohio Constitution of 1851 (carried unchanged into Ohio’s
current Constitution) is based on the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, a pre-constitutional charter
document that governed the Ohio territories, among others. Many free states at the time
carried similar provisions into their constitutions, and it formed the basis of the Thirteenth
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which provides:
Neither 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.
Involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime has been held to be lawful in the U.S.,
in the form of prison labor.2 It is not clear how the amendment would affect prison labor
practices in Ohio.
HISTORY
Action Date
Introduced 05-30-23
ANHJR0002IN-135/ks
2 United States v. Reynolds, 235 U.S. 133, 149 (1914).
P a g e |2 H.J.R. 2
As Introduced