Voters consider ban on forced labor aimed at protecting prisoners
SACRAMENTO, California — Voters in California and Nevada will decide in November whether they want that ban forced labor in prison by removing language from their state constitutions that is rooted in the legacy of slavery.
The measures are intended to protect people in prison forced to work under the threat of punishment in the United States, where it is not uncommon for prisoners to be paid less than a dollar an hour to put out fires, clean prison cells, make license plates or do yard work in cemeteries.
Nevada holds about 10,000 people in prison. All inmates in the state must work 40 hours a week or attend vocational training unless they have a medical exemption. Some of them earn as little as 35 cents an hour.
Voters will weigh the proposals during one of the most historic elections in modern history, said Jamilia Land, an advocate with the Abolish Slavery National Network, who has tried for years to the California measure past.
“California, like Nevada, has the opportunity to end legalized, constitutional slavery within our states, in its entirety, while at the same time having the first Black woman to run for president,” she said about Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic speech. bid as the first Black and Asian American woman to earn a major party’s nomination for the nation’s highest office.
Several other states such as Colorado, Alabama and Tennessee have also done so in recent years with exceptions for slavery and involuntary servitude, although the changes were not immediate. In Colorado – the first state to do so Abolish an exception for slavery from the 2018 Constitution – incarcerated people claimed in a lawsuit filed in 2022 against the corrections department that they were still forced to work.
“What it did do: It created a constitutional right for an entire class of people that didn’t exist before,” said Kamau Allen, co-founder of the Abolish Slavery National Network, which advocated for the Colorado measure.
Nevada’s proposal aims to remove both slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime from the Constitution. The California Constitution was amended in the 1970s to eliminate an exemption for slavery, but the involuntary servitude exception remains on the books.
Wildland firefighting is one of the most sought after prison work programs in Nevada. Those who qualify for the program are paid about $24 per day.
“There are many people in prison who want to do meaningful work. Are they being treated fairly now? No,” said Chris Peterson, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, which supports the measure. “They get paid pennies an hour, while other people get dollars, to do incredibly dangerous work.”
Peterson pointed to a state law that created a modified workers’ compensation program for incarcerated people who are injured on the job. Under that program, the amount awarded is based on the person’s average monthly wage at the time the injury occurred.
In 2016, Darrell White, an injured prison firefighter who filed a claim under the modified program, learned that he would receive monthly disability benefits of “$22.30 for a daily rate of $0.50.” By then, White had already been released from prison, but he was unable to work for months while he recovered from surgery to repair his broken finger, which required physical therapy.
White sued the state prison system and the Division of Forestry, saying his disability benefits should have been calculated based on the state’s then-minimum wage of $7.25. The case went all the way to the Nevada Supreme Court, which rejected his appeal, saying it remained an “open question” whether Nevada prisoners were constitutionally entitled to minimum wage compensation.
“It should be clear that paying Mr. White $0.50 per day is patently unfair,” his attorney, Travis Barrick, wrote in the appeal, adding that White’s needs while in captivity were minimal compared to his post-release needs, including housing and housing. utilities, food and transportation. “It is unthinkable that he could meet these needs on $0.50 a day.”
The California Senate an earlier version rejected of the proposal in 2022 after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration raised concerns about the costs if the state were to start paying all inmates the minimum wage.
Newsom signed a law earlier this year requiring the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to create a community service program. The agency would set wages for people legally incarcerated in state prisons. But the law would only take effect if voters approved the ban on forced labor.
The law and companion measure will give incarcerated people more opportunities for rehabilitation through therapy or education instead of being forced to work, said California Assemblymember Lori Wilson, a Democrat who represents Solano County and who sponsored the proposal. wrote this year.
Wilson suffered from trauma growing up in a household with dysfunction and abuse, she said. She was able to process her trauma by going to therapy. But her brother, who didn’t receive the same help, ended up in jail, she said.
“It’s just a story of two stories about what happens when someone who is traumatized, has anger issues and gets the rehab work he needs — what he could do with his life,” Wilson said.
Yannick Ortega, a formerly incarcerated woman who now works at an addiction recovery center in Fresno, California, was forced to work several jobs during the first half of her time while serving a 20-year prison sentence for a murder conviction, she said.
“If you’re sentenced to prison, that’s the punishment,” said Ortega, who later became a certified paralegal and substance abuse counselor by getting her training while working in prison. “You don’t have the freedom to do everything on your own.”
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Yamat reported from Las Vegas. Austin is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on Twitter: @ sophieadanna