Voters in California have rejected a ballot measure that would have ended forced labor in prisons and jails, CalMatters reports. Proposition 6 garnered support from Democratic party leaders, labor unions and dozens of advocacy groups who viewed their efforts as part of a national movement to end a racist legacy and abolish slavery. California mandates tens of thousands of incarcerated people to work at jobs – many of which they do not choose — ranging from packaging nuts to doing dishes, to making license plates, sanitizer and furniture for less than 74 cents an hour, according to legislative summaries of prison work. If a person does not complete their work, regardless of illness, injury or bereavement, they face punishment, such as disciplinary infractions, which can lead to losing privileges including visits from family members. Prop. 6 would have prohibited the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from disciplining incarcerated people who refuse a work assignment.
A similar attempt to ban forced prison labor failed in 2022. At the time, the California Department of Finance opposed the proposal, noting that it had the potential to drive up prison spending by $1.5 billion annually to provide minimum wage to incarcerated workers. This time, lawmakers adjusted what became Prop. 6 to clarify that the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation would have set wages for voluntary work assignments in state prisons. It faced no funded opposition, but as election results showed the measure trailing, Prop. 6 supporters and independent political experts said the language might have confused voters. The California Attorney General’s Office writes ballot language and summaries, and the word “slavery” did not appear on the California ballot. Instead, the language read, “Eliminates Constitutional Provision Allowing Involuntary Servitude for Incarcerated Persons. Legislative Constitutional Amendment.” “When I saw the words ‘involuntary servitude,’ I thought, ‘This might take some explaining for the voters,’” said Mark Baldassare, survey director at the Public Policy Institute of California. “We know that when people are unsure or uncertain, the default is to vote ‘no.’”
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