California and Nevada Voters to Decide on Banning Forced Prison Labor

Prisoners at Oak Glen Conservation Camp line up for work deployment under the authority of Cal Fire, near Yucaipa, California, on Sept. 28, 2017. David McNew/AFP via Getty Images

Voters in California and Nevada will decide on Nov. 5 whether to remove provisions in their state constitutions that allow prisons to use forced labor to punish crimes.

Proposition 6 will repeal the provision in California’s constitution that allows state prisons to force inmates to work and ban the state’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from taking disciplinary action against inmates who refuse to work.

State prisons will instead prioritize rehabilitation programs for inmates. No formal opposition to the amendment has been submitted so far, the state’s voters’ guide states.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) said the fiscal effect of Proposition 6 on state and local criminal justice costs depends on how rules around labor for incarcerated persons in state and county prisons change.

“For example, if people in prison and jail no longer face consequences for refusing to work, prisons and/or jails might have to find other ways to encourage working,” the LAO stated. “If this is done by increasing pay, costs would increase. If this is done by giving more time credits instead, costs would decrease because people would serve less time. ... Any effect likely would not exceed the tens of millions of dollars annually.”

In Nevada, the Question 4 ballot seeks to abolish language from the state constitution that permits the use of slavery and involuntary servitude as criminal punishment.

Both amendments allow state prisons to continue to award credits or wages to incarcerated persons who voluntarily take on work assignments.

The 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution abolished enslavement and involuntary servitude in the United States, except as punishment for a crime. Colorado and several other states have previously removed the language from their constitutions.

A 2022 study by the American Civil Liberties Union stated that nearly 800,000 of the 1.2 million people imprisoned in federal and state prisons are forced to work for less than $1 an hour or without any pay. They perform tasks such as repairing roads, clearing land, fighting wildfires, and manufacturing products.

The study found that the average minimum hourly wage paid to incarcerated persons for non-industrial work ranges from 13 to 52 cents per hour.

Prisoners working in seven states—Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Texas—receive no pay at all for most jobs. The study also stated that incarcerated persons fighting wildfires in California only earn $1 an hour.

In 2022, the California Senate rejected a proposal to remove slavery from the state constitution after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office warned that paying prisoners minimum wage could cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

California Federation of Labor Unions President Lorena Gonzalez said on Sept. 28 that Proposition 6 will save taxpayer money by reducing the cycle of reincarceration through rehabilitation efforts. The state spends about $134,000 per year to incarcerate just one person, Gonzalez said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.