CA legislators are trying to raise the pay for deprived workers again

From Joe GarciaCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

Despite the rejection of voters to vote last fall in order to amend the state constitution of Eliminate Increased Prison LaborAssembly member Isaac Brian of Los Angeles believes he can receive two bills that would improve salaries for prison and prison.

“This is an interesting moment,” Brian said, Vice-President of the Legislative Black Cook while talking about fires in Los Angeles and public recognition of a hardworking Fire crewsS

“I think this has re -opened this conversation in the awareness of people about how it may seem to be deprived of liberty and how much is not paid for the paying human salary – you know, a basic salary that is worthy – what it says to all of us.”

His Assembly A assembly 247 It would impose $ 19 an hour paying firefighters when their work task puts them in active fire accidents.

“Very few people are aware that they earn $ 5 to $ 10 a day by doing the job, and so the legislation to increase these salaries has received some huge support,” Brian said.

The other measure, AB 248It does not have to have an immediate price, but it will eliminate decades of a $ 2 state cladding for an eight-hour shift for prison workers at the district prison-many of which have not been convicted of crimes and expect a lawsuit.

Both measures by Brian have upgraded Black Caucous’s efforts in the last few years to deal with the state’s history for discrimination against Afro -American and apply recommendations from California Reparations Special GroupS

In the immediate era after the Civil War, prisons in California exploited prisoners-a predictable black and a radical threat of punishment. Thehe A working group described The present tasks of prison jobs such as “state sanctioned unintentional service” and a direct heritage of slavery.

So far the proposals that would make these changes have failedmost, when voters in November Rejected proposal 6The vote measure that would review the State Constitution to prohibit involuntary work.

This year, Brian’s bills are moving forward, despite some fears from Republican MPs that they can increase costs and threaten existing work programs they support you.

“This bill ignores the main objective of prisoners’ work programs,” said the Republican Assembly order Heather Hadwick of Grass Valley last month when she voted against a bill that will raise the salaries in district prisons. “They are not traditional employment. They are part of the rehabilitation process that provides structure, skills and a sense of responsibility. My rural counties cannot reach this bill.”

Most of California’s prisons do not pay workers closed for any salaries. But when they do, they have to comply with a limit of $ 2.

“This is 25 cents per hour for these fasting mathematics,” Brian explained. “At this speed, combined with the prices of the predatory commissioners, it will take you a full working week to allow yourself to afford a two -ounce toothpaste and a hot cheese bag.”

Change floors, cleaning toilets, preparing and distributing three meals a day for all people in locking – sheriffs and prisoners treat these basic jobs as privileges provided to persons who choose to trade work outside their cells and other fins, such as guaranteed daily showers or additional food.

Deprivation of prisoners of any significant salary also limits their ability to pay the casualties restitution fees, a court mandate, Brian said. Although they work full -time – and often even overtime, seven days a week – many prisoners continue to wear a debt of restitution.

“This is a relic of slavery – for sure,” Brian said.

California’s Supreme Court found last year that workers in the district prison prison – even those whose imprisonment does not lead to criminal sentences – are not entitled to state requirements for a minimum wage. In Ruelas vs. Alamed CountyThe court interprets the state law to determine the compensation of the working prison in the county as adequate with regard to offering a loan for a sentence, rehabilitation value and job training opportunities.

“Whether the result here, based on the interpretation of this legal scheme, is a desired policy, is a matter beyond our competence, but it is not outside the legislature,” writes Justice Kelly M. Evans in the decision of April 2024. “The legislature may, if it considers the judgment of the judgment and the wages for the salaries or loans for the salaries persons. ”

Brian, co -authored with democratic senator Josh Becker of Menlo Park, aims to achieve this correction of state legislation.

California sheriffs are opposed to a prison wage bill

The California State Sheriffs Association opposes the bill and said in a letter to the Public Safety Committee of the Assembly that it “will” create pressure on the counties to increase the fiscal recovery provided to the prisoners, thereby potentially limiting the availability of job opportunities while in freedom. “

Brian noted that his bill to pay prison in the county bears zero fiscal liability and therefore does not need to adopt a budget loan committee.

“This bill can pass and today it can’t change anything,” Brian said. “But it means at some point in the future – if there is a county where the people of this county and the district board decide that it is indecent to have people who work for a quarter of an hour, whether they are imprisoned or not – they will not have a problem with the state.

The sport of the assembly Josh Hoover of Folsum, an area known for its centuries -old prison, explained its support for the bill.

“We already have a $ 2 salary in the code, which means we have already admitted that a salary has to be paid,” he said. “I think it makes sense for local authorities to be able to determine what this salary is based on the needs of their community.”

Assembly Carl Demaio San Diego said it was opposed to offering the organ’s counties to pay more workers more.

“We can enter the whole debate about rehabilitation, but the reality is when people are in prison when they are in prison, there are significant costs for taxpayers,” he said. “It is not unreasonable to expect prisoners to help find themselves in order to do a little of the work – to clean their cells, to do laundry, to serve food.”

Work and rehab in prison

Still, the rehabilitation debate quickly found its way to the Assembly conversation.

As governor Gavin Newsom founded much of his transformative philosophy of the California model – which emphasizes rehabilitation, education and re -entry over punishment – for the first developed reforms first developed Inside the prisons in NorwayViolators often look at it with skepticism.

“The governor likes the Norwegian model, so I’m a little suspicious of this so -called Norwegian model,” Demeyo said. “But obviously there are some really good elements of the Norwegian model, which includes $ 8 for work.

Brian turned to Demayo’s points in his closure. “I was in Norway. I saw it closely,” he said. “People in Norway have the right to vote in prison; they go home on weekends; often they work out of prison during the week and then return; they earn real salaries in their community and store that money.

“There is a lot of what we can learn from the Norwegian model, so I look forward to exploring this with my San Diego colleague.”

With 51 votes – all democratic, except for the lone Hoover vote, 12 Nays – all Republican and 17 members (10 Democrats), officially elected not to vote, the salaries measure went through the meeting and now awaits the approval of the Senate.

The anti-recidivism coalition supports both Brian’s bills and the jointly sponsored AB 247, in addition to their overall advocacy for renewing the Constitutional Amendment legislation 6, which will terminate prisons in California. Voters rejected such support in 2024, but the measure is most likely to appear on the newsletter in 2026.

“When we got rid of the slave movement, we really moved into the use of prison labor as an alternative and using the fact that these people were deprived of their freedom as a means of taking advantage of them,” said the chief consultant and lobbyist of the coalition, Esteban Nunes.

“You can work all day every day inside and at the end of the month you are hardly enough to buy what small hygiene you can. And it’s just not right. To keep people in poverty and not to compensate for people fairly and to keep them in poverty-in the best case de-hum.”

Joe Garcia is a local associate of California news.

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.