Editorial: California voters rejected an anti-slavery measure to end forced prison labor. Now what?

Proposition 6, the ballot measure that would have amended the California Constitution to prohibit involuntary servitude in prison, failed. That’s troubling. Do voters really believe forced prison labor is acceptable?

The state Constitution (like its federal counterpart) has long outlawed slavery and involuntary servitude except “to punish crime.” Maybe voters thought prisoners should be made to work as part of their punishment, which would be in keeping with the broader “tough on crime” tilt of this year’s electorate. Whatever the voters’ reasons, forcing incarcerated individuals to do work against their will is immoral and does no one any good — neither prisoners nor those in the outside world to which most will return. The practice should be abolished.

Prison itself is the punishment prescribed for those held in one. Prisoners should be able to choose their jobs — of which there are many in prison — as well as the educational and treatment programs they need to prepare for life after prison. “The goal should be changing behavior,” says Jay Jordan, a longtime criminal justice reform activist who spent 7½ years in prison and advised the Proposition 6 campaign.

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Former prisoners have recounted being assigned work that they didn’t want or that interfered with classes or drug and alcohol treatment programs they wanted to take. Their labor is for the most part barely compensated, at rates far below minimum wage. And refusing work often results in discipline, they have said, such as loss of various privileges. Some former prisoners said they waited years to get the jobs or treatment they wanted.

Not that jobs go undone: More than 90,000 people are in California‘s prisons, and only about 35,000 have jobs. And if Proposition 6 had passed, prisoners still would have been able to work on a voluntary basis.

This system needs to be changed. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has already made a few improvements. Up to 75% of full-time jobs are being converted into part-time jobs, which would leave prisoners with more time to pursue education and treatment. The prison system also doubled the paltry wages it pays for work, although the jobs pay a pittance even with that increase. Most prisoners make 16 to 74 cents per hour, though firefighters can be paid up to $10 an hour.

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But state law requires that all able-bodied prisoners work, and prison officials can’t change that.

The state Legislature, however, could — and should. In fact, lawmakers passed and the governor signed legislation to do away with the work requirement this year, but it was contingent on voter approval of Proposition 6.

The Legislature should pass a bill to remove mandatory work from the Penal Code that doesn’t rely on a constitutional amendment. While the Constitution allows forced labor in prison, it is the Penal Code that mandates it. Only voters can change the constitutional provision, but lawmakers have the power and duty to change the law.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom should also explore the possibility of an executive order directing prison officials to end forced labor.

In addition, the Legislature should give voters another opportunity to do away with the constitutional exception, particularly given the possibility that the language of Proposition 6 could have been clearer. Nevada voters decisively passed a similar measure that, in contrast to California’s initiative, used the word “slavery.”

There should be no place in the California Constitution for anything as morally offensive as forced labor. It is a remnant of a national atrocity that should not be tolerated in prisons or anywhere else.