LOS ANGELES — California and Nevada voters are weighing whether to repeal legal loopholes in their state constitutions that allow slavery and involuntary servitude to be used as criminal punishment.
If passed, the amendments would end the practice of forcing inmates to work for less than $1 an hour or face additional punitive measures. Instead, inmates would have the option to spend their time participating in rehabilitation programs, which proponents say would reduce recidivism.
California and Nevada would join a growing national trend that started with voters in Colorado repealing involuntary servitude in 2018. Utah and Nebraska joined the movement in 2020, and several more states, including Alabama, Tennessee and Oregon, instituted similar measures in 2022.
Slavery and involuntary servitude were banned nationally by the 13th Amendment with one exception — as punishment for a crime. An attempt to repeal the federal exemption was introduced by Democratic members of Congress in 2023 and remains in committee.
“California prioritizes prison slave labor over rehabilitative programming that’s proven to reduce crime when incarcerated people return to our communities,” Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., said in a statement. “This is exacerbating recidivism rates, creating more victims, and increasing costs to taxpayers for a prison system that fails more often than it succeeds.”
Inmate labor is behind a multitude of everyday items — like license plates, office furniture and groceries — that end up on the shelves of major suppliers across the country. If incarcerated people refuse to work, they can face solitary confinement or jeopardize their chances of parole.
In 2016, Shawna Lynn Jones became the first incarcerated woman to die while fighting a fire in California, according to the state corrections department. She was struck in the head by a falling rock after asking the fire captain if she could move further back from the fire line. The captain said no, according to an advocate for Yes on Prop. 6.
“Prop. 6 offers us the opportunity to take a stand for human rights and ensure that incarcerated individuals are treated with respect and compassion,” Alyssa Mireles of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the country’s oldest Latino civil rights group, told reporters Wednesday.
“It’s about giving incarcerated people the choice to participate in meaningful work without the threat of punishment, and it’s about ensuring that when they work, they are fairly compensated and given the care they need,” she added.
Lawrence Cox, an advocate for formerly incarcerated people, said he was subjected to dangerous conditions while working in hot kitchens during his 17 years in prison. He estimates he received an extra 60 days to his sentence after receiving three disciplinary job-related infractions.
Cox said he earned about $22 a month for full-time work and was denied the opportunity to participate in enrichment programs, like anger management classes, that would have better served him after his release.
“People who are incarcerated actually do want to work,” he said. “It’s just some people prioritize being rehabilitated in a different way.”
In an emailed statement, Terri Hardy, a spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said the agency has eliminated all unpaid work assignments. As of April, wages have doubled from 37 cents for the highest paid laborer to 74 cents. Firefighters make a little more than $10 a day.
“CDCR’s goal is for every incarcerated person to take advantage of positive programming and rehabilitative opportunities such as education, self-help, vocational and other programs,” Hardy said. “These rehabilitative pathways are intended to ease the transition back into their communities and reduce recidivism.”
No argument was submitted against the California initiative but it appears to be lagging, according to a recent poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.
Support for the measure has declined slightly since September, when 50% of voters said they would vote against Prop. 6. As of October, 56% of likely voters said they would vote against Prop. 6, according to the most recent poll.
The numbers appear to be a part of a larger statewide trend away from decarceration after a perceived rise in crime during the Covid pandemic, when images of looting and smash-and-grabs permeated headlines.
Preliminary numbers provided by the FBI show that crime was dropping in the early part of this year, continuing a trend as the U.S. came out of the pandemic. But that has done little to sway some voters.
An overwhelming number of likely voters in California — 73% — said they would vote yes on Prop. 36, an initiative which would allow felony charges for possessing certain drugs and for thefts under $950.
“The public has reached a tipping point,” said Greg Totten, a retired prosecutor and proponent of Prop. 36. “There’s growing recognition we’ve gone too far the other way and we need to restore some balance.”
Esteban Nuñez, with the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, the main proponent behind Prop. 6, said the initiative has faced a major education challenge in the lead-up to Election Day.
It qualified for the ballot in June and only just started a paid campaign. The word “slavery” does not appear in the initiative’s title, a misstep he feels might confuse voters.
“People just don’t know what that really means,” he said of the term “involuntary servitude.”
“But when we tell people we’re trying to remove an exception to slavery, no one wants an exception to slavery,” he added.
Should Prop. 6 fail on Nov. 5, his group is prepared to reintroduce the initiative in the next election cycle and the one after that.
“If it means we have to come back to California voters in two years or four years, then that’s what we’ll do,” Nuñez said.