On a sunny morning Wednesday in Los Angeles, a coalition of criminal justice reform advocates gathered and called on voters to pass Proposition 6 and finally free California from slavery — as a free state — nearly 175 years after it joined the Union.

“We are here to confront the uncomfortable truth that in our beautiful, great state of California, slavery is still enshrined in our Constitution,” Tanisha Cannon, executive director of Prisoners with Children Legal Services, told the crowd of supporters.

Her message was part of a broader campaign in which she supported Proposition 6 as a vote to “end slavery.” However, according to the state's official voter guide, Proposition 6 has nothing to do with slavery.

Instead, the measure asks voters whether to eliminate a provision in the California Constitution that uses language similar to the U.S. Constitution's 13th Amendment, which allows prisons and jails to use “involuntary servitude” as punishment for crimes. If passed, Proposition 6 would ban the practice, effectively ending mandatory labor assignments for prisoners.

Proponents of Proposition 6 say there is no difference between slavery and involuntary servitude in prisons because inmates typically have no control over their work assignments and often face disciplinary action if they refuse to work. And they argue that today's prison labor industry is an extension of a law California passed shortly after joining the union in 1850 that criminalized fugitive slaves and sent them back to southern plantations.

“Involuntary servitude is slavery by another name,” Cannon said. “Prop. 6 will finally put an end to this cruel practice.”

Despite efforts to portray Proposition 6 as a simple anti-slavery measure, some voters do not interpret it that way.

According to a recent poll from the Public Policy Institute of California, only 41% of likely voters said they planned to vote for Proposition 6. One of the respondents, Greg Shoulder, a registered Republican in Oceanside, said Proposition 6 was “way down the road in importance.”

“We're already spending tens of thousands of dollars to incarcerate someone, I mean that's astronomical,” said Shoulder. “Working in the laundry, working in the kitchen, things like that are legitimate work. It has to be done by someone. And it makes no sense to pay a civilian $20 an hour for the work he can do.”

The campaign in support of Proposition 6 has raised about $2 million, a small amount in a huge state with several expensive advertising markets. No formal objection has been made to the measure or the money spent to prevent it.

In 2023, prisoners attend a mental health course at the California State Prison in Sacramento.

(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

Proponents say Proposition 6 would allow incarcerated people to focus more on their rehabilitation by freeing up time in their schedules to enroll in courses focused on mental health, substance use disorders, anger management and a variety of other self-improvement programs that better prepare them for life after prison.

“If we prioritize work, which is the case in our current system … it limits the personal growth of those in our prison system and successful reintegration,” said Lori D. Wilson, a Democrat from Suisun City and Chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus and authored the legislation that put Proposition 6 on the ballot.

The caucus supported a recommendation from the California Reparations Task Force to end forced prison labor to address the “ongoing and increasing harm suffered by African Americans from slavery and its ongoing impact on contemporary American society.”

The measure does not impose wages or specify working conditions. The Legislature, the governor and prison officials could begin negotiating details if the measure passes.

There are about 35,000 work orders in California prisons, according to Terri Hardy, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Duties include training service dogs, construction work, clerk positions, computer programming, hospice care and janitorial work.

About 5,700 prisoners have work orders through the California Prison Industry, which operates factories where inmates build office furniture, make license plates and make other items sold to state agencies.

Most jobs pay less than a dollar an hour, while a few offer higher wages. For example, inmate firefighters sometimes receive up to $10 per day.

Last year, prison officials announced plans to nearly double most hourly wages for incarcerated workers. Unpaid work has also been eliminated, Hardy said, and most jobs will become part-time.

Some advocates worry voters could be confused because the ballot measure includes the term “involuntary servitude” rather than “slavery.” Other states that passed similar measures, including Oregon, Tennessee, Colorado, and Nebraska, typically introduced the term “slavery” into official language, although some of these proposals had little impact on prison labor.

Jay Jordan, founding partner of the advocacy group Center for Social Good and a longtime criminal justice reform activist in California, said he understands why voters might be skeptical about eliminating job requirements. But he said most prisoners want to work and that won't change if Proposition 6 passes.

The measure would instead allow people to work part-time and spend the rest of their days taking classes that would better prepare them for a successful return to their home communities, Jordan said. Additionally, he added, prisons do not have enough jobs for California's roughly 94,000 inmates or the required number of rehabilitation programs. So many inmates are already sitting around with nothing useful to occupy their time, he said.

Since he was a teenager, Jordan spent seven years in prison because he was accused of robbery. He said he spent much of that time painting truck beds for Caltrans, which earned about 6 cents an hour, or $14 a month. A good portion of that money went toward reimbursement, while the rest helped him stockpile cheap soup from the cafeteria.

Jordan said it took more than six years for him to finally end up in programs that helped address his issues with substance use and anger management.

“I actually got worse,” Jordan said of his time in prison. “Let’s create something that actually works.”