California lawmakers earlier this year declined to put an anti-slavery measure on the ballot, delaying a decision on a proposal to forbid the practice of using work as a form of criminal punishment.
Voters in five other states – Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont – this week saw similar measures on their ballots, reflecting a nationwide push to wipe out the vestiges of enslavement in American law.
Of the five, only Louisiana voted not to ban slavery as a form of criminal punishment.
In the remaining states – Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, and Alabama – over 75% of voters passed amendments that effectively prohibit forced labor upon incarcerated people.
Max Parthas, national coordinator for Abolish Slavery National Network, said that this is one of the ‘biggest tests’ for the nation. He contends people should not be forced to work if they are effectively state property.
“(It) was a win for us because it exposed the underbelly of the Jim Crow South and how dependent they are on slave labor,” said Parthas. “Slavery was legal. These states have never seen a day where slavery was not legal.”
The signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865 outlawed slavery but permitted indentured servitude if a person was convicted of crime, an exception that still stands in most states.
Four states have removed language allowing slavery or involuntary servitude. Those states are Rhode Island in 1842, Colorado in 2018, and then Nebraska and Utah in 2020.
State Sen. Sydney Kamlager, D-Los Angeles, wrote a bill earlier this year that would have placed an amendment on the ballot asking California voters to change the state constitution in a way that would prohibit indentured servitude. It did not pass in time for the November ballot, reflecting concerns among some lawmakers over how it would affect inmates jobs in California prisons.
Kamlager called indentured servitude a “stain” on the consciousness of California.
“I continue to say (if you) support slavery and involuntary servitude being in the state constitution then you continue to support a racist and Confederate past,” said Kamlager, who this week won her election to represent Los Angeles in the House of Representatives.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has nearly 65,000 work assignments for inmates, according to the California Department of Finance. Lawmakers who voted against or held up Kamlager’s bill last summer said they wanted to protect rehabilitative work programs, including criminal sentences that call for community service.
Many prison jobs include work maintaining correctional facilities. About 7,000 inmates have jobs through the Prison Industry Authority, which contracts with state agencies and some private companies to manufacture clothes, furniture and other goods.
Generally, while California prisons pay inmates for labor, their wages are negligible. Inmates typically earn 8 cents to 37 cents an hour for work they perform while incarcerated.
According to a Senate analysis, Kamlager’s bill could have made it an obligation to pay inmates minimum wage, or $15.50 an hour, which would have cost the state north of $1 billion a year.
Anti-slavery bill amended, still did not pass
Kamlager said that wages have nothing to do with removing that language in the constitution that allows for slavery.
“This is not about changing wages. It is about removing a stain from our state’s constitution and ultimately from the federal constitution, that is a vestige of slavery and Jim Crow,” said Kamlager.
She further questioned whether in-prison jobs lead to work after incarceration. California inmates assigned to firefighting crews, for instance, rarely become professional firefighters.
“They do it because the labor force is available and free,” said Kamlager. “We also have a carceral system that allows you to learn a skill or a train in prison that you cannot get hired for outside of (prison). These things are examples of how bodies are manipulated, hunted and coerced into working and creating profit for someone else.”
Kamlager nonetheless amended the bill to allow for voluntary, rehabilitative work in correctional settings.
That version of the bill did not receive a vote by the Senate.
Will California follow other states’ lead?
Jamilia Land, coordinator for the Abolish Slavery National Network, said the votes this week in other states contrasted with California lawmakers’ hesitance to “end the legalized practice of slavery.”
“We continue to wear the unfortunate badge that says we are pro slavery in a state that claims to be one of most progressive in the country,” said Land. “How is it that Alabama voted to remove this language from their state’s constitution and California did not? Shame on our legislators.”
Chris Lodgson, an advocate of Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, remains optimistic that California will eventually join the other states that have made the shift in terminology.
“The future is bright for California because these other states can be a good example for (state legislation) to follow if (they) have the will,” said Lodgson.
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