ACA 8 “would prohibit the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation or any local entity operating a jail facility from punishing any incarcerated person for refusing a work assignment.”

Senate Public Safety Committee approves, moves to Senate Elections Committee

Would go to voters in November

By Edgar Guerra, Communications Director, Office of Assemblywoman Lori Wilson

SACRAMENTO, CA – The End Slavery in California Act (ACA 8), authored by Assemblywoman Lori D. Wilson (D-11) has made significant progress by passing out of the Senate Public Safety Committee. This crucial step brings California closer to abolishing the practice of forced labor for incarcerated workers and removing the last vestiges of slavery from the state constitution.

The Constitutional Amendment was introduced in February 2023 and passed by the Assembly last September. According to the Legislative Counsel’s Digest, “The California Constitution prohibits slavery and prohibits involuntary servitude, except as punishment to a crime.

This measure would instead prohibit slavery in any form, including forced labor compelled by the use or threat of physical or legal coercion. form. This measure would prohibit the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation or any local entity operating a jail facility from punishing any incarcerated person for refusing a work assignment. The measure would also clarify that its provisions do not prohibit the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation or any local entity operating a jail facility from awarding an incarcerated person credit towards their sentence for voluntarily accepting a work assignment.”

Wilson, who represents portions of Eastern Contra Costa County, emphasized the urgency of advancing this historic measure, stating, “The passage of ACA 8 out of the Senate Public Safety Committee marks a critical moment in our pursuit of justice and human dignity. We must urgently move this bill through the Senate Elections and Appropriations Committees, and onto the Senate and Assembly floors, so we can get it to the voters. Californians deserve the opportunity to abolish slavery once and for all.”

According to a November 2023 L.A. Times article about “The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR) proposal…for eliminating all unpaid work assignments and reducing hours for most prison workers from full-time jobs to half-time.”

“Approximately 40% of California’s 96,000 prisoners have jobs while they serve out their sentences, according to the department spokesperson, doing laundry and janitorial work, as well as clerking and construction. Their wages generally range from 8 cents an hour to 37 cents an hour, depending on the skill level required for the job. The proposal calls for doubling the wage range, from 16 cents an hour to 74 cents an hour,” according to the Times’ report. “Prison officials argue that higher wages will have several benefits, including making it easier for inmates to pay back the money they owe for damage from their crimes” and “Fifty-five percent of inmates’ wages go toward restitution costs, according to the Department of Corrections.”

According to the CDCR’s Restitution Responsibilities, Information for Adult Offenders, “Restitution means ‘paying back’…State law requires judges to order restitution in every criminal case,” and “may cover medical bills, funeral expenses, and the cost of repairing damaged property.”

There are two types of restitution. “Restitution fines usually range from $200 to $10,000” and are determined by the judge. “Direct orders are specifically for victim losses because of the crime(s) committed against them” and the judge also determines the amount to be paid.

The ACA 8 Coalition, echoed the same sentiment as Wilson: “We are fighting to give people long-overdue humanity. Californians should be able to say how they feel about the forced labor of incarcerated people and our state’s continued use of slavery/involuntary servitude as a means to exploit human beings in 2024. The ACA 8 Coalition is determined to give voters the opportunity to add their voice to this movement. We must end slavery. No excuses, no exceptions.”

In May, the ACLU California Action announced, ACA 8 Coalition, made up of more than 30 organizations across the state, had secured the endorsement of the California Democratic Party. The organization wrote in a press release, “On Sunday, May 19, the California Democratic Party endorsed the End Slavery in California Act by Assemblywoman Lori Wilson (ACA 8). This historic legislation will give incarcerated workers the dignity and autonomy to prioritize education, vocation or rehabilitative programming over forced exploitation. ACA 8 places a constitutional amendment before the voters in November to remove the last vestiges of slavery from our state constitution.”

The press release further reads, “After the legislature passes ACA 8, voters can remove the “exception clause” that allows prison officials to force incarcerated people to labor and punish workers for calling off sick, taking a day to grieve, or declining a work assignment that does not serve their rehabilitation needs.”

According to a June 2022 report by the ACLU entitled, Captive Labor: Exploitation of Incarcerated Workers, “From the moment they enter the prison gates, incarcerated people lose the right to refuse to work. This is because the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which protects against slavery and involuntary servitude, explicitly excludes from its reach those held in confinement due to a criminal conviction. The roots of modern prison labor can be found in the ratification of this exception clause at the end of the Civil War, which disproportionately encouraged the criminalization and effective re-enslavement of Black people during the Jim Crow era, with impacts that persist to this day.

Today, more than 76 percent of incarcerated workers surveyed by the Bureau of Justice Statistics say that they are required to work or face additional punishment such as solitary confinement, denial of opportunities to reduce their sentence, and loss of family visitation. They have no right to choose what type of work they do and are subject to arbitrary, discriminatory, and punitive decisions by the prison administrators who select their work assignments.”

Following its passage in the Senate Public Safety Committee, ACA 8 now moves to the Senate Elections Committee. Upon approval there, it will proceed to the Senate Appropriations Committee, and subsequently, to the Senate and Assembly floors for a final vote.

Allen D. Payton contributed to this report.