California and Nevada Voters to Decide on Banning Forced Prison Labor

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.
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.
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.
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.