By Bob Walsh
The constitution of the formerly
great state of California specifically recognizes the concept of forced
labor for prisoners. The legislature of the state is acting to remove
that from the constitution as they believe, or at least say they
believe, it is a vestige of slavery and is mean to Black people. One of
the results of this would be that prisoners who work within the system,
like clerks and kitchen workers and fire fighters, would have to get
paid at least minimum wage. This would of course GREATLY increase the
cost of operating the prison system as prisoners supply a huge amount of
the labor necessary to keep the system running at very low rates of
pay. Many in fact work now without a "pay number" just to get time out
of their cells.
Under the
old rules a prisoner could refuse to work and as long as he did not get
into trouble that was considered "good time" and he could receive "good
time credit" for this time, which would earn sentence reductions. Back
during the Jerry Brown administration the law was changed for all
prisoners except lifers. They could be required to work. They would
not get their good time credit if they refused to work.
It is of course possible that the real reason for attempting this is to increase the cost of running the prisons.
When
I retired 18 years ago the maximum pay number for working for the
prison was about $75 per month. Prisoners working for the Prison
Industries Authority could make three or four times that.
I do think that inmate fire fighters deserve a significant pay raise. Other than that, not so much.
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