California and Nevada Voters to Decide on Banning Forced Prison Labor

The amendments allow state prisons to continue to award credits or wages to inmates who voluntarily take on work.

Prisoners at Oak Glen Conservation Camp line up for work deployment under the authority of Cal Fire, near Yucaipa, California, on Sept. 28, 2017. David McNew/AFP via Getty Images

Voters in California and Nevada will decide on Nov. 5 whether to remove provisions in their state constitutions that allow prisons to use forced labor to punish crimes.

Proposition 6 will repeal the provision in California’s constitution that allows state prisons to force inmates to work and ban the state’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from taking disciplinary action against inmates who refuse to work.