Endorsement: Yes on Proposition 6. Forced labor undermines prisoner rehabilitation

For more than a century and a half, California has outlawed forced labor. But there has always been an exception for one group — people in prison. The state Constitution specifically prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude except “to punish crime.”
It’s time to strike those words from the Constitution by voting “yes” on Proposition 6 on Nov. 5. No one, including state prisoners serving time for serious crimes, should be forced to work against their will. Involuntary servitude is a remnant of a post-slavery practice that is repugnant and has no place in the state, even in its prisons. Proposition 6 will remove the language that allows prisons and jails to force incarcerated people to work and punish them when they refuse.
We wholeheartedly endorse it.
This is not about coddling prisoners. Their punishment for committing serious crimes is being confined for years and sometimes decades. All this measure does is allow prisoners some agency over how they will spend that time to take advantage of resources such as drug treatment and vocational education that might change their lives once they are out — and most people in prison do get out. It’s good for everyone when people leave prison better prepared than when they went in.
Over the last few years, other states have recognized the injustice of using forced labor in prisons. Shamefully, California is among just 16 states that cling to this odious relic.
Assemblymember Lori D. Wilson (D-Suisun City), who was author of the legislation that put the measure on the ballot, says it would allow prisons and prisoners to prioritize rehabilitation over work. “Currently, work is first,” she notes. And that is a misguided policy. The California Reparations Task Force called for ending forced labor in state prisons as one of its many recommendations.
Prisoners can take classes, get substance-use or mental-health treatment, visit with family and friends, or, in fact, pursue work they want to do. All this helps prisoners develop skills and personal insight more than forcing them to do work that may interfere with the classes and treatment they do want to pursue.
Generally, individuals in prison initially are given jobs as kitchen workers, groundskeepers, launderers, mechanics, hospital workers and janitors. More specialized positions, such as machine work, sewing or license plate manufacturing, are considered more desirable, and people apply for them. Prison system regulations say that an incarcerated person’s “expressed desires and needs” among other factors will be taken into account when assigning jobs. But former prisoners say even when they do have a chance to express their preferences, they are rarely honored.
The more sought-after jobs can take years to get and sometimes require waiting on a list. Jobs are given out as they become available, say former prisoners. So people who may prefer to work in the kitchen may be forced to work in a machine shop while someone more interested in the machine shop is sent to toil in the kitchen.
The goal of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is in its name. But formerly incarcerated people and prison reform advocates and researchers say that rehabilitation is hindered by forced labor. People who refused work have said they faced punishment including solitary confinement and losing visitation privileges.
Former prisoners advocating for this proposition recount stories of not being able to take the rehabilitative programs they needed because they interfered with the work assignments. In one case, a man serving time for a manslaughter conviction said he knew that alcohol was a factor in his criminal behavior and wanted to take an alcohol rehabilitation program but the hours of his assigned job in the kitchen conflicted with the program. It would take him several years to finally get into the programs he needed.
Passing Proposition 6 is unlikely to result in unfilled jobs. As is it, of the 92,000 people in California prisons about 60,000 have jobs, according to prison officials. The state’s legislative analyst says the number of prisoners with jobs is probably much lower. Proponents of the measure say that most prisoners want to work or learn new skills.
And work is also a source of income, albeit a pittance in most cases. The pay scale ranges from as low as 16 cents an hour for a less skilled laborer, such as doing laundry or janitorial work, to as much as 74 cents an hour for clerking in an office or working in a warehouse. (And those are the pay ranges after the prison system doubled them earlier this year.) Some skilled jobs can pay significantly more, such as minimum wage.
However this proposition has no effect on pay scales for prison work. The prison system has made some changes in the way work is handled, and that’s promising. It has eliminated all unpaid work and will be transitioning as much as 75% of full-time work to half-time jobs — which would free up time for individuals to attend the programs they want.
If we want people to emerge from prison rehabilitated — and if we care about public safety, we should — that requires allowing them to access as many opportunities as possible to get an education, learn a skill and get treatment to best prepare them for a productive life after prison. Forcing them to work in the kitchen may help officials run their prisons but it doesn’t help prisoners transform their lives, and that should be the primary concern for all of us.