Californians voted in the November election to keep wording in the state constitution that allows involuntary servitude in state prisons.
With 53.3% voting against Proposition 6, incarcerated individuals will not have the option to earn sentence-reducing credits through participation in work programs and will face disciplinary action for rejecting assigned work.
In rejecting Proposition 6, The Campanile thinks Californians made the right decision.
Prison labor has economic and rehabilitative benefits, and The Campanile values the economic benefit of maintaining so-called involuntary servitude in prisoins.
The work of incarcerated individuals reduces operational costs within prisons and contributes to the State workforce.
Additionally, passing Prop 6 would have cost California an estimated $1.5 billion more yearly to pay incarcerated individuals minimum wage, a significant portion of the $14.3 billion annual prison budget.
Currently, arduous jobs in prison are voluntary and wages compensate for difficulty and danger.
For example, incarcerated individuals who volunteer to help combat wildfires can get paid up to $10 per day, according to Governing, a non-partisan magazine on state-local government.
In addition, because the Americans with Disabilities Act protections apply to prisons, incarcerated individuals may be entitled to accommodations for their disabilities.
Due to the many options afforded to incarcerated individuals in California, The Campanile thinks it is reasonable to require work in the form of prison maintenance.
Mandated work also serves to keep incarcerated individuals busy while simultaneously developing their job skills.
Not only will prison work prepare them for jobs upon release, but less idle time among incarcerated individuals will lower violence within prisons, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
While ideally, California could provide rehabilitation for incarcerated individuals, rehabilitation programs within California do not have a history of success.
State data shows only 40% of incarcerated individuals utilized services offered to them by a $100 million rehabilitation program in 2020.
Thus, The Campanile thinks involuntary servitude is a more cost-efficient and effective method of preparing incarcerated individuals for life after prison than rehabilitation efforts.
However, The Campanile does have reservations about the current system. Since Colorado became the first state to outlaw involuntary servitude in prisons in 2018, incarcerated individuals have reported continual subjection to forced labor.
Furthermore, according to the Scholars Strategy Network, 94% of incarcerated individuals earn between 8 cents and 37 cents per hour, significantly below the state minimum wage of $16 per hour.
Even though most work is menial, we think wages should be standardized for jobs such as kitchen or janitorial work.
The Campanile understands enslaving incarcerated individuals is morally unjust. However, we agree with the majority of Californians that our current laws do not cross the line into slavery.
If California provides just accommodations, only requires menial work and pays according to labor difficulty, prisons should demand work of those who are incarcerated.
gunn student • Jan 13, 2025 at 12:33 am
Month late cause i’m a gunn student but this is insane. At least attach someone’s name to it and include other perspectives if you are going to release something so deranged. Extremely ignorant take.
Luc Pardehpoosh • Jan 7, 2025 at 12:28 pm
Yall are trippin. Paly ain’t been the same since 2019
Another Paly 2019 Alum • Jan 6, 2025 at 8:28 pm
It’s disgusting that a publication at Paly would write something like this. Suggesting that being paid $10 per day of fire-fighting is even remotely reasonable is just laughable. It is hard to believe anyone who wrote a headline saying “people should be forced to work” has ever worked a day in their life.
I really hope that the students who wrote this take some time to do some real research and heavily reconsider their writing.
Paly class of 2019 • Dec 23, 2024 at 9:15 am
What are the odds none of the writers of this article have ever known an incarcerated person…this article feels out of touch. Dont know whose opinions you’re trying to influence but this is doing a good job of keeping Palo Alto youth on the forefront of privileged ignorance, who grow up to chase even more profit at the expense of others (on top of their trust funds).
Lucy • Dec 19, 2024 at 10:14 pm
Honestly a bit disappointed in the quality of this editorial. It’s rather poorly written, and reads like a satire in many places. From saying that prisoners shouldn’t be payed minimum wage for their labor but instead less because it’d cost to much, to literally stating that 94% of prisoners make under 37 cents an hour for their work in the same piece is an interesting combination. This piece even painted it as a positive that some prisoners work fighting wildfires earning up to $10 a day, an abysmal amount considering the dangers, effort, and health affects that complicate such labor. Why does the Campanile Editorial Board believe that labor done by prisoners is so much less valuable than labor done by anyone else?
I’d encourage readers to look into the system that holds up these prisons. There is a reason that we have such a high incarcerated population in the United States and a system that allows involuntary solitude as long as someone is in prison at the same time. The 13th amendment was literally built with this loophole in mind.
Faizan Kashmiri • Dec 19, 2024 at 1:18 pm
Really disappointed with this editorial. I love Campanile and will never stop supporting them as a student journalist– but this is really indefensible.