Legislation signed July 2 by Gov. Newsom would create a voluntary work program for California inmates contingent upon the passage of an anti-slavery ballot measure in November.
AB628, however, will give inmates the option to work while incarcerated, including city and county assignments for cleaning alongside freeways and responding to grass or brush fires. It would also require inmate wages for county and city jails to be set by local ordinances.
Both bills were authored by Democrat Assemblymember Lori Wilson.
The California Faculty Association, a 29,000-member state university union, supported the bill.
“[The faculty association] believes that incarcerated people should be able to choose jobs and shifts that allow them to continue their education, use the law library, get counseling, and participate in other rehabilitative programs that facilitate growth and transformation,” the group wrote in an Assembly analysis of the bill in June.
The bill passed in the Senate June 27 in a vote of 33-2 with only Republican Senators Roger Niello and Kelly Seyarto opposing. It passed the Assembly on the same day in a unanimous vote.
