Push Continues To End Involuntary Servitude In State’s Prisons 

By Robert J. Hansen | OBSERVER Staff Writer

It’s 2023 and government-sanctioned slavery still exists in the Golden State.

California is one of 20 states where involuntary servitude is allowed as criminal punishment. Involuntary servitude means being forced to work for someone against one’s will, even if payment is involved. Prison rights advocates are leading the charge for change. They want to see involuntary servitude stricken from the state constitution.

The campaign to remove the language allowing for such practice began in 2020, inside California State Prison Los Angeles County in Lancaster. It was the height of the coronavirus pandemic and an inmate, Samual Nathaniel Brown, had to clean a cell that had belonged to a person who died of COVID-19.

Brown said the “go to work or else” prison policy put his health, and his life, at risk. He called prisons plantations and said the write-ups inmates get if they defy orders to work, even in dangerous situations, are tantamount to the “modern day whip.”

Brown, a former CSU Los Angeles student, wrote the language that would become Assembly Constitutional Amendment 3, the California Abolition Act, while still behind bars. The issue was picked up by then-state Sen. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles). Brown co-founded and co-chaired the Anti-Violence, Safety and Accountability Project and the California Abolition Coalition with his wife, local activist Jamilia Land. Land fought for support for the bill on the outside.

ACA 3 failed to pass the state Senate last year, but was quickly reintroduced as End Slavery in California (ACA 8) by Assemblymember Lori Wilson (D-Suisun City). Wilson picked up the baton to carry on the fight to eradicate the phrase “involuntary servitude except as a punishment to crime” from California’s constitution.

California is among 16 states with an exception clause for involuntary servitude in their state constitutions. Most recently, voters in Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont removed involuntary servitude language from their state constitutions, according to Wilson.

“ACA 8 is an opportunity to catch up to these states and serve as a model for others in the nation,” Wilson said. “Involuntary servitude is an extension of slavery. There’s no room for slavery in our constitution, which should reflect our values in 2023.

“The legacy of slavery and forced labor runs deep in California’s history, from the exploitation of indigenous people in Spanish missions to Black slaves forced to mine for gold. Today, slavery takes on the modern form of involuntary servitude, including forced labor in prisons. Slavery is wrong in all forms and California should be clear in denouncing that in the constitution.”

ACLU California Action’s website points out that slavery was not fully abolished by the 13th Amendment.

“The exception clause enabled the modern re-enslavement of Black people, who’ve been overcriminalized by our nation’s criminal legal system for centuries,” the website reads.

Last year, more than 65% of incarcerated people reported being forced to work in prison, doing vital jobs like firefighting and paving roads while governments and private companies generate and save, collectively, at least $1 billion annually from their labor, according to ACLU California Action. In 2022, incarcerated workers made up 43% of the state’s firefighters, the ACLU said, but even after some were released from prison, they were barred from serving as firefighters.

Brown was released from prison in January after 24 years. In February he stood with Wilson on the Capitol’s west steps when she reintroduced a new iteration of the legislation he created.

ACA 8 currently sits in the Senate committee process and is scheduled for a vote next year.

Senior Staff Writer Genoa Barrow contributed to this article.

Over the coming weeks, “Inside Out” will highlight the experiences of formerly incarcerated individuals and their families, look at efforts to improve local jail and prison facilities, and share the perspectives of Black correctional staffers and attorneys who work on change from within and activists who have dedicated their lives to shining a light on the inequities of the criminal justice system.