In a sweeping two-year investigation, The Associated Press found goods linked to prisoners wind up in the supply chains of everything from Frosted Flakes cereal and Ball Park hot dogs to Gold Medal flour and Coca-Cola. The prisoners who help produce these goods are disproportionately people of color.

In a lawsuit filed this week, a group of current and former Alabama prisoners say they have been coerced into providing cheap labor to the state and to private employers.

The U.S. Constitution bans slavery except as punishment for a crime. A growing number of states have tried to address this in their own constitutions, but prisoners say the only change is on paper.