If Prop. 6 passes, California will join the list of states outlawing forced prison labor in recent years.

Shawna Lynn Jones died while fighting a fire that raged through the hills of Malibu in 2016. She was struck by a boulder and suffered major head trauma just over a month before she was due to be released from prison. 

“So that just is an extreme example of, like, what slavery can do in this state,” said Alissa Moore, reentry coordinator for Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, who was imprisoned at the California Institution for Women in Chino with Jones.

While Jones chose to join the team that fights wildfires, the only reason she was in the path of the fatal boulder was because of a direct order from her lieutenant that she would have been unable to refuse, according to Moore.

Now LSPC is fighting to change the California Constitution to end involuntary labor in the state and give incarcerated people more choices between work and rehabilitation. Proposition 6 would amend the California Constitution to make it illegal to force people in state prisons to work as a punishment for crimes or as a form of discipline.

On Oct. 1, the Oakland City Council voted unanimously on a resolution supporting Prop. 6, which is on Tuesday’s ballot. The language in the Oakland resolution compares the act to slavery, which council members denounced. 

“Involuntary servitude is slavery by any other name. Prop 6. will finally end this racist and cruel practice,” Tanisha Cannon, managing director of LSPC, said during the council meeting.

According to data from the California Secretary of State, the campaign for the proposal raised over $1.2 million as of mid-October, while no money reportedly was raised against it.

A yes vote would remove constitutional language allowing for involuntary servitude, while a no vote would leave the language in the Constitution. 

Despite the spending, recent polling from the Public Policy Institute of California suggests that 50% of likely voters would vote no, compared to the 46% that would vote in favor of the measure.

LSPC is leading the fight to sway the public in favor of a yes vote in the coming election, while being one of the largest financial contributors to the campaign via its “All of Us or None Action Network” nonprofit organization, at more than $345,000.

Slim opposition

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association in Sacramento has argued against the proposition in media accounts, saying that without forced labor, prison costs will increase dramatically as outside workers are hired to do that work.

No argument was submitted against Prop. 6 for the California voter guide. The argument in favor of it — written by Assemblymember Lori Wilson, labor and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta, and Stephen Downing from the Law Enforcement Action Partnership — says Prop. 6 would expand voluntary prison work programs, while ensuring dignity and rehabilitation. 

They wrote that California is one of 16 states still allowing forced prison labor and that voters in half a dozen other states, including Alabama, Colorado and Utah, overwhelmingly stopped the practice in recent years.  

The mission for LSPC is to end involuntary servitude so that incarcerated people can take full advantage of various treatment and rehabilitation services. The Oakland-based organization, with chapters across California, has already had significant wins in human rights for incarcerated people, including helping end long-term solitary confinement sentences in California. 

Penalties for not working

Lawrence Cox, LSPC’s regional advocacy and organizing associate who spent 17 years in prison, claims that some of his work assignments conflicted with rehabilitation programs that would have helped to rehabilitate him sooner. 

Most work programs, which pay between 8 and 11 cents an hour, run during a 9-to-5 work schedule, which often conflicts with college courses, vocational training, or therapy, which Cox claimed stopped him from getting the rehabilitation he sought.  

“You don’t want to work, you will be punished,” Cox said, speaking of how he wasn’t able to take advantage of those programs while he was incarcerated because his work assignments conflicted with the time of the programs.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has made efforts to combat this problem by making up to 75% of its jobs half-time to allow more people to take advantage of rehabilitative programming.

Punishment can include adding time to your sentence, losing visitation privileges, and access to phone calls, although that varies based on the institution, according to the Corrections Department. 

However, the worst, according to Cox, is getting a write-up that can be brought up during parole hearings and could be the single reason the parole board determines an incarcerated person is not rehabilitated. 

---

Would Prop. 36 reduce retail theft and drug offenses, or would it just punish harshly without deterring crime?