NOVEMBER 2024 VOTER GUIDE
YES ON PROP 6
Remove Involuntary Servitude as
Punishment for Crime Amendment
ENDORSE-O-METER SAYS: STRONG YES
Our state constitution prohibits slavery and prohibits “involuntary servitude,” except as punishment to a crime. This measure would prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude under any and all circumstances, and prohibit the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from disciplining any incarcerated person for refusing a work assignment. We’re voting yes because using prisoners for forced labor is an outdated, inhumane practice that allows the prison system to perpetuate modern-day slavery instead of what it is supposed to do: keep our communities safe.
The Context
While advocates (and anyone who’s seen the documentary 13th) have been calling for an end to involuntary servitude in prisons, the conversation is heating up now as stakeholders debate the use of prisoners as impromptu firefighters and laborers. California’s Inmate Firefighter Program was created in 1946 and as of 2021, saved the state approximately $100 million annually by paying prison firefighters between $5 and $10 a day, and a bit more while actively fighting fires. Is it fair to risk the lives of prisoners without their consent to save the state money?
We’re siding with those who say no. The prison system should exist to detain individuals who pose a danger to society and deter others from committing violent crimes. Allowing the prison system to take advantage of those individuals to save money creates an incentive to arrest people that corrupts the system and perpetuates the abhorrent practice of slavery our country has been trying to eradicate since its founding.
As of 2021, approximately 1,600 incarcerated people live and work out of over 30 camps run by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in conjunction with either CAL FIRE or the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Additionally, in 2021, the California prison system reported it had nearly 65,000 work assignments for incarcerated persons. The average pay for these assignments is less than $1.00 per hour. It’s time this practice ended.
The Money
It’s true that eliminating this program would mean paying workers out of a different part of the state budget. For the short-term, the good news is there are a number of formerly incarcerated workers who understand how to work as firefighters. In the long-term, the state would need to find a solution to funding this workforce.
Additional Details
This measure is part of a reparations package for descendants of African Americans enslaved in the U.S. and part of a national movement to ban slavery in all its forms. In 2020, U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) introduced a resolution to remove involuntary servitude from the U.S. Constitution as a punishment for crime. Today, 16 states prohibit enslavement and involuntary servitude, but maintain exception provisions for criminal punishment; 9 states permit involuntary servitude as a criminal punishment, California being one of them. In 2022, Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont joined Nebraska (2020), Utah (2020), and Colorado (2018) as states that have passed constitutional amendments prohibiting slavery and involuntary servitude.
Support & Opposition
This measure was co-sponsored and supported by social justice-oriented advocacy organizations like Freedom United, GLIDE Foundation, Homies Unidos, and more. It is supported by Democratic members of the State Legislature.
Paid for by TogetherSF Action. Not authorized by any candidate or a committee controlled by a candidate. Financial disclosures are available at sfethics.org.