Forbidden Frequency

TikTok · 11:11 Frequency

WHAT DOES SLAVERY LOOK LIKE IN AMERICA?
Prison labor, abuse, trauma, and the struggle to rebuild
By Brighty Kelley

My name is Brighty Kelley. I am a writer and a seeker of deeper innerstanding. I examine subjects people often overlook—and the systems we accept without questioning who benefits and who carries the cost.

Today, let’s examine America’s prisons: the work people perform, their compensation, their treatment, and whether they are truly prepared to build a better life.

People sometimes describe jail and prison as an easy way out.

Easy for whom?

Someone else decides when you eat, sleep, shower, move, and see your family. Your daily life is controlled, and challenging mistreatment can be difficult.

The United States has the world’s largest reported prison population, according to the World Prison Brief, which lists approximately 1.83 million people in American prisons and jails. Countries report different categories of detention, so international comparisons have limitations. Nevertheless, the scale demands scrutiny. (prisonstudies.org⁠)

What is slavery?

The 1926 Slavery Convention defines slavery as a condition in which powers associated with ownership are exercised over a person. In plain language, it means treating a human being as something someone owns and controls. Incarceration or a strict schedule alone does not establish slavery. (ohchr.org⁠)

But compelled labor under threat of punishment raises serious questions about involuntary servitude.

The 13th Amendment prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude while retaining an exception for punishment after a criminal conviction.

That exception is written into our Constitution. It deserves examination. (archives.gov⁠)

Real work. Pennies—or nothing.

A 2022 report by the ACLU and the University of Chicago Law School’s Global Human Rights Clinic found average wages of 15 to 52 cents an hour for non-industry prison jobs in states that paid. Seven state prison systems—including Arkansas—paid nothing for the vast majority of prison work.

Among incarcerated workers surveyed, 76% reported facing punishment if they refused or were unable to work. (aclu.org⁠)
Calling someone a prisoner does not erase the value of their labor.

Who benefits from the work?

Government institutions benefit from prison labor, and some programs supply labor to private corporations. Most prison assignments maintain the prisons themselves; private-company assignments represent a smaller share. Compensation and working arrangements vary. (aclu.org⁠)

When corporations benefit from captive labor, the public should know what workers earn, who receives the financial benefit, and whether workers can refuse without punishment.

estigation. Who authorized the work? Were workers paid? Could they refuse? Was public authority being used for private benefit?

There is a difference between a voluntary program that develops useful skills and using people under your control as a personal workforce.

Pennies earned. Charges added.

Then come the expenses: electronic messages, commissary food and snacks, and phone calls where charges apply. Families trying to maintain a connection can end up carrying those costs.

Emails—yes. Sixty cents for one message, last time I looked. That is the price I remember seeing for a particular service, not a nationwide rate. At some of the prison wages documented above, one message could cost more than an hour’s pay.

How does someone earning pennies maintain relationships, purchase necessities, and prepare financially for release?

Work for pennies. Pay to reach someone you love. Somehow save enough to start over.

Where in that equation are people being set up for greatness?

Looking back from 2026, there is no single, comparable national r**e count covering every year from 2000 onward. The federal reporting program developed after the Prison R**e Elimination Act of 2003, with administrative data collection beginning in 2004. Those gaps limit what we can count; they do not establish that abuse was absent. (bjs.ojp.gov⁠)

Here is part of the documented record:

Reported 36,264 allegations of sexual victimization, including 6,370 allegations of nonconsensual sexual acts. The broader total included abusive sexual contact, staff misconduct, and harassment. These were allegations—not 36,264 proven r**es. (bjs.ojp.gov⁠)

• 2023–2024, published in December 2025: Surveys found sexual victimization reported by 4.1% of prisoners and 4.0% of jail inmates—approximately one person in twenty-five. These are the latest national inmate-survey findings identified for this article, not incident totals for 2026. (bjs.ojp.gov⁠, bjs.ojp.gov⁠)

Sexual victimization is broader than r**e alone. Survey estimates and institutional allegation counts measure different things and cannot simply be added together. Nevertheless, they document a problem spanning decades.

Behind every statistic is a person. A sentence should not make that person’s safety irrelevant.

Physical abuse and dangerous conditions

In 2020, the Justice Department sued Alabama over alleged unconstitutional conditions in its prisons for men, including failures to protect prisoners from violence and sexual abuse, unsafe conditions, and excessive force by staff. The lawsuit followed a federal investigation. (justice.gov⁠)

A sentence takes away freedom. It should not become permission for exploitation or unchecked abuse.

Then there is the heat in Texas.

Former prisoners have reported cell temperatures exceeding 130°F. During a 2024 federal hearing, one former prisoner testified that a hallway thermometer reached 136°F in 2020. These are reported accounts and testimony, rather than independently verified measurements of every cell. (texastribune.org⁠, texastribune.org⁠)

A peer-reviewed study estimated an average of 14 deaths annually associated with heat in Texas prisons without air conditioning between 2001 and 2019. (jamanetwork.com⁠)

On September 22, 2026, a federal judge ordered Texas to air-condition its prisons by the end of 2029. (texastribune.org⁠)

People cannot leave an overheated cell the way someone outside can leave an overheated room. Their safety depends on the institution holding them.

How can we talk about rehabilitation while people endure conditions that threaten their health and lives?

Trauma does not disappear at the prison gate

Entering prison does not automatically mean healing from experiences that came before it. If someone encounters violence, humiliation, sexual abuse, or constant fear inside, they can leave more traumatized than when they arrived.

Then we expect them to come home, find work, rebuild relationships, and function as though none of it happened.

How can a system claim rehabilitation while allowing conditions that deepen the wounds people need help healing?

Consider someone trying to turn an extreme situation into a different life. They work. They study. They try to rebuild their confidence and develop skills.

When the gates open, they must turn those efforts into employment, housing, transportation, and stability—sometimes while carrying the effects of further abuse.

How do you secure housing without income? Reach a job without transportation? Recover from trauma while meeting obligations and proving yourself all over again?

A federal study following a defined group released from federal prison in 2010 found that 33% had no recorded employment during the following four years. That does not describe everyone leaving prison, but it illustrates a substantial obstacle to rebuilding. (bjs.ojp.gov⁠)

We tell people to get ahead. We should examine what keeps them from doing so.

Without adequate support and realistic opportunities, instability can deepen. People can fall back into the same system they worked to leave behind.

Where is the preparation for greatness? Where is the meaningful chance to succeed?

If rehabilitation is the stated goal, we should judge the system by whether it equips people to build lawful, stable lives.

Accountability must include protecting children

We also need to examine sentencing. How are old ma*****na convictions handled? Do punishments reflect the harm committed? When someone convicted of sexually abusing children receives a lenient sentence, the public deserves an explanation.

People convicted of sexually abusing children deserve severe prison sentences. Taxpayers deserve a transparent accounting of incarceration costs, sentencing decisions, and whether those decisions protect the public.

Show us the spending. Explain the sentences. Hold institutions accountable when they cover up abuse or fail victims.

Demanding dignity for incarcerated people does not mean demanding leniency for those who harm children. It means meaningful consequences, protection for victims, and lasting support for

Mt criticism is directed at exploitation: compelled labor for pennies or nothing, degrading treatment, dangerous conditions, and barriers that undermine someone’s attempt to rebuild a lawful life.

That is why I describe exploitative forced prison labor as part of America’s modern slave trade. This is my moral assessment of the practice, rather than a claim that every prison arrangement meets the legal definition of slavery.

Work hard. Keep paying. Keep proving yourself. Still struggle to get ahead.

That pattern invites questions far beyond prison walls.

It makes me question our whole system, really.

But I digress.

—Brighty Kelley
Forbidden Frequency
Writer ✍️ @

📍 Lebanon, Missouri

I’m actually up here looking at the aftermath of the McDonald’s fire.

A few hours earlier, black smoke was rising in a massive pillar over this community. Now I’m standing here looking at what’s left.

And there’s also been a McDonald’s fire in Troy, Missouri.

Connected? I have no idea.

But standing here looking at this, I can’t help but think—

What a fu***ng sign of the times.

One of the biggest symbols of corporate fast food going up in flames while people everywhere are questioning what the hell is actually in our food and what corporate America has been feeding us for decades.

Then there are the Flock cameras and people pushing back against surveillance.

Of course not all of us are NPCs.

Some of us are still looking around.
Still questioning s**t.
Still paying attention.
Still refusing to blindly accept whatever gets put in front of us.

I report what I see.
I tell you what it makes me think.

You decide what it means.

FORBIDDEN FREQUENCY
Writer/Journalist
— Brighty Kelley

FORBIDDEN FREQUENCY

WHAT IF WE’VE BEEN DIAGNOSING THE WRONG PATIENT?

Brighty Kelley

Anu. Enki. Enlil. Inanna. Marduk. The Anunnaki. Yahweh. YHWH. Jehovah. Elohim. El. El Shaddai. Adonai. The Most High. The Creator. Allah. Brahma. Vishnu. Shiva. Zeus. Odin. Ra. Osiris. Amun. Baal. The Demiurge. Yaldabaoth. Samael. Saklas. Sophia. The Archons. The Watchers. The Nephilim. Lucifer. Satan. Az**el. Shemyaza. Belial. Beelzebub. Abaddon. Apollyon. Fallen angels. Principalities. Powers. Thrones. Dominions.

Different names. Different religions. Different civilizations. Different stories.

Yet humanity keeps doing the same damn thing.

Looking up.

Worshipping. Begging. Apologizing. Asking forgiveness. Waiting to be saved.

After years of researching ancient texts, studying religion and energy, observing human behavior, experiencing things I cannot simply dismiss, and following my own gnosis, I keep returning to one question:

WHAT IF WE’VE BEEN DIAGNOSING THE WRONG PATIENT?

From the moment we’re old enough to understand language, we’re taught that WE need healing.

Heal your inner child. Heal your trauma. Heal your bloodline. Heal your karma. Raise your vibration. Repent. Confess. Ask forgiveness.

Okay.

Forgiveness from who?

We’re dropped into this reality and almost immediately handed some version of the same story: something is wrong with us.

We’re sinful. Fallen. Spiritually asleep. Unworthy. Damaged. Disconnected.

But after enough research, another question starts screaming to be asked:

Have you actually read the stories about the beings we’ve been told to worship?

Anger. Jealousy. Punishment. Destruction. Obedience. Worship. Sacrifice.

Gods fighting gods. Brothers fighting brothers. Heavenly rebellions. Watchers descending. Angels falling. Archons controlling. Anunnaki interfering. Entire pantheons at war.

These are some OLD-ASS GODS carrying some old-ass problems.

And somehow we’re the ones who need a healing?

Really?

Maybe THEY NEED A HEALING.

Because worshipping ancient gods described as jealous, angry, vengeful and destructive while spending our own lives trying to heal jealousy, anger, vengeance and destruction looks like the definition of insanity to me.

Once I saw that contradiction, I started seeing the same pattern everywhere.

Religion. Government. Families. Relationships. Institutions.

Someone always seems to want your power.

And somehow giving it away gets renamed obedience, loyalty, patriotism, faith or enlightenment.

Then comes that phrase:

“LET GO AND LET GOD.”

Really?

I’m supposed to sit on my ass because his will is going to fix everything?

Stop fighting for myself? Stop changing my circumstances? Stop questioning? Stop taking action?

Wait for an invisible authority to decide it’s finally my turn?

BU****IT.

I’m not handing away my power and calling it faith.

And that brings me to something even bigger.

WORSHIP.

What if these beings aren’t demanding worship because WE NEED THEM?

What if THEY NEED US?

Prayer. Devotion. Fear. Obedience. Guilt. Shame. Worship. Attention.

ENERGY.

Some call it LOOSH.

Now look around at this reality.

The people at the top already have more money than they could spend in a hundred lifetimes.

So what the hell do they still need?

If money were the end game, wouldn’t the game already be over?

Why does the pursuit of control never stop?

Why endless war?

Why generation after generation of death?

Why mass suffering?

Why mass fear?

Why does so much of human history resemble one enormous cycle of sacrifice?

Maybe we’ve misunderstood the currency.

MAYBE THE CURRENCY IS ENERGY.

Anyone who innerstands energy understands why I keep looking at this.

Fear is energy.

Grief is energy.

Rage is energy.

Sexual energy is energy.

Love is energy.

Attention is energy.

Worship is energy.

Now imagine millions—or billions—of Hu-mans focused on the same horrific event.

Terrified. Grieving. Angry. Watching. Praying. Begging.

That is an enormous concentration of human emotion and attention.

When I look at this reality through that lens, I see something feeding on it.

FEEDING THE BEASTS.

Call them Archons. Parasites. Fallen angels. Gods. Call them whatever the hell you want.

Maybe humanity has spent thousands of years fighting over what to name them instead of paying attention to the pattern.

And then there’s organized religion.

We’re told religion and government are separate, yet religious institutions operate within government-recognized tax-exempt structures.

I look at that and see institutions accepting a relationship with the governmental system while claiming spiritual independence from it.

I call that submitting to the government.

Then people act surprised when religious institutions reinforce government narratives and established systems.

I’m not surprised.

Look at the structure.

Look at who establishes the rules.

Look at who benefits.

Most importantly:

PAY ATTENTION.

Look at how often religion finds people at their weakest.

You’re terrified?

Pray.

You’re sick?

Pray.

You’re broke?

Pray.

You’re grieving?

Pray.

You’re angry?

Repent.

You’re questioning?

Have faith.

You’re suffering?

God has a plan.

How convenient.

What if suffering isn’t evidence that you need to surrender harder?

What if something inside you is screaming:

WAKE THE F**K UP.

Then came the pandemic.

And one image from that period has never left my mind:

SIX FEET.

Don’t touch.

Don’t hug.

Don’t gather.

Stay away from each other.

Whatever explanation you accept for those policies, I think we’re allowed to examine what physical separation did to Hu-mans.

Because through my own work with energy, I have repeatedly experienced what I perceive as a biofield surrounding the human body.

I’ve experienced those fields extending several feet. I’ve experienced them differently from person to person. I’ve experienced what feels like larger or more disrupted fields when somebody is seriously imbalanced.

That’s part of my gnosis.

And when Hu-mans enter each other’s space, something happens.

WE CONNECT.

You know the experience even if you use completely different words for it.

You’ve walked into a room and felt something before anybody spoke.

You’ve known somebody wasn’t okay without being told.

You’ve hugged somebody and felt your entire body change.

You’ve sat beside someone who was falling apart and watched them begin to settle simply because another Hu-man was there.

Call it energy.

Call it nervous-system regulation.

Call it consciousness.

Call it spirit.

Call it whatever makes sense to you.

Something happens between us.

And that leads directly to what I believe may be one of the most important things we’ve forgotten:

WE AS HU-MANS ARE POWERFUL.

Not because something above us grants us power.

Not because a government gives it to us.

Not because a religion approves it.

WE ALREADY HAVE IT.

But something changes when we connect.

One Hu-man can question.

One Hu-man can wake up.

One Hu-man can refuse to surrender their mind.

But when Hu-mans genuinely connect—when we stop allowing religion, politics, race, money, borders and manufactured division to keep us fighting one another—our individual power becomes collective.

We exchange ideas.

Courage.

Love.

Strength.

Knowledge.

Energy.

One person awakens something in another, who awakens something in another.

And suddenly I have to ask:

What if that’s exactly why separation matters so damn much?

Separate us by religion.

Separate us by race.

Separate us by politics.

Separate us by countries.

Separate us by class.

Separate us by fear.

Separate us physically.

Then convince every Hu-man that the person standing beside them is the enemy.

Maybe we’ve been trained to look UPWARD for power because nobody wanted us looking SIDEWAYS AT EACH OTHER.

Read that again.

Because that may be one of the biggest distortions of all.

WE AS HU-MANS ARE ALL POWERFUL WHEN WE CONNECT.

Your spirit.

My spirit.

Our connection.

That’s where I see the real power.

Maybe nothing outside us needs to come save humanity.

Maybe Hu-mans remembering each other is how we begin saving ourselves.

And that’s when I look again at the reality we’re actually standing in.

War.

Abuse.

Children suffering.

Human trafficking.

Violence.

Starvation.

Human beings slaughtering one another over invisible lines somebody drew on a map.

We’re surrounded by things so horrific that we’ve somehow been conditioned to call them normal.

And I’m supposed to live inside this reality without ever asking:

WHERE THE HELL ARE WE?

No.

I’m asking.

I’m questioning all of it.

Because after everything I’ve researched, everything I’ve experienced, everything I’ve observed and everything my own gnosis has shown me, I cannot simply accept that this reality is exactly what we’ve been told it is.

Maybe:

YOU ARE NOT WHERE YOU THINK YOU ARE.

Maybe this place is hell.

Maybe it’s something completely different.

Maybe we’re living inside something humanity doesn’t yet innerstand.

But I am done automatically assuming that whatever sits at the top of humanity’s oldest stories must therefore be the healthy one.

Maybe the sickness didn’t begin with humanity.

MAYBE IT MOVED DOWN THE CHAIN.

Maybe we’ve spent thousands of years asking:

“WHAT’S WRONG WITH US?”

Maybe that’s the wrong damn question.

Maybe we should have been looking upward this entire time and asking:

GODS… WHO HURT YOU?

Because maybe THEY NEED A HEALING.

And maybe anything—human, institutional, energetic or otherwise—that survives through fear, worship, suffering and separation loses its power when Hu-mans stop feeding it.

So I’m not asking you to replace one belief system with mine.

I’M ASKING YOU TO PAY ATTENTION.

Research.

Observe.

Experience.

Question.

Use your own discernment.

Stop kneeling.

Stop waiting.

Stop surrendering your mind.

Stop giving away your energy.

FIND YOURSELF.

Then FIND EACH OTHER.

Because your spirit, your connection to your higher self, and your connection to other Hu-mans seeking truth, freedom and love may be far more powerful than anything we’ve ever been taught to worship.

And maybe that’s exactly why we’ve spent so damn long being taught to forget it.

WAKEY WAKEY.

FORBIDDEN FREQUENCY
Brighty Kelley

Our Problem Is Them

By Brighty Kelley | Forbidden Frequency

I spent part of my childhood in Missouri before moving to Southern California.

We had ticks.

We had woods.

We had dogs.

We had livestock.

What we didn’t have were conversations about a tick bite changing a person’s relationship with food for years or even decades. We weren’t hearing stories about hives, anaphylaxis, ambulance rides, and people suddenly becoming allergic to foods they had eaten their entire lives.

Forty years ago, nobody was talking about this.

Today, everyone seems to know someone affected by it.

According to CDC data, more than 90,000 suspected Alpha-Gal cases were identified between 2017 and 2022 alone. Yet behind every statistic is a human being trying to figure out why their own body suddenly turned against them.

I know because I lived it.

My nightmare began around 2001.

The hives came first.

Then the itching.

Then the stomach problems.

Then the ambulance rides.

Benadryl. Pepcid. Emergency rooms. Fear.

For nearly a decade I searched for answers while my body seemed to be fighting a war against itself. Finally, a doctor suggested Alpha-Gal Syndrome. Testing was expensive, so I simply stopped eating beef and pork.

It may have saved my life.

Years later, believing the problem was behind me, I ate two cheeseburgers within about a month of each other.

The reaction came back.

Not as severe, but enough to remind me that whatever changed inside me was still there.

Today, some people with Alpha-Gal cannot even tolerate gelatin capsules. Think about that for a moment. A tick bite happens once. The consequences can follow someone for years.

And yet we are told not to ask questions.

That is where my concern begins.

The public is constantly told to trust the experts, trust the institutions, trust the people in charge. Yet time after time the pattern appears the same.

A problem emerges.

People suffer.

Questions are dismissed.

Then years later the problem is finally acknowledged.

By then the damage is already done.

The people pay the price.

The institutions move on.

Some call it “problem, reaction, solution.”

A problem appears.

The public reacts.

A solution is offered.

Then the solution creates new problems requiring even more solutions.

The cycle continues.

Meanwhile Americans are sicker than ever.

More allergies.

More autoimmune conditions.

More chronic illness.

More medications.

More confusion.

More people wondering why their bodies seem to be turning against them.

My opinion is simple.

Our problem is not the people asking questions.

Our problem is not the people comparing notes.

Our problem is not the people sharing their experiences.

Our problem is the growing gap between what people are experiencing and what they are being told.

When trust disappears, people start looking for answers themselves.

They should.

Because no one has more at stake than the people living with the consequences.

The hives were real.

The ambulance rides were real.

The fear was real.

The suffering was real.

The question is whether the people responsible for protecting the public are solving problems—or merely managing them after the fact.

Forty years ago nobody was talking about this.

Today tens of thousands are.

Something changed.

And many of us are still waiting for honest answers.

— Forbidden Frequency
Brighty Kelley