{"id":11884,"date":"2025-10-18T21:38:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T21:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/11884\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T21:38:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T21:38:16","slug":"ca-lawmakers-try-again-to-raise-pay-for-incarcerated-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/11884\/","title":{"rendered":"CA lawmakers try again to raise pay for incarcerated workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Joe Garcia<\/a>, CalMatters<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by CalMatters<\/a>. Sign up<\/a> for their newsletters.<\/p>\n

Despite voters\u2019 rejection of a ballot measure last fall to amend the state constitution to abolish involuntary prison labor<\/a>, Assemblymember Isaac Bryan of Los Angeles believes he can get two bills passed that would improve wages for individuals inside jail and prison.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an interesting moment,\u201d said Bryan, vice chair of the Legislative Black caucus, as he spoke of the Los Angeles fires and the public recognition of hard-working incarcerated fire crews<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that reopened this conversation in the consciousness for folks about what incarcerated labor can look like and how undignified not paying folks a human wage \u2014 you know, a basic wage that is dignified \u2014 what that says about all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

His Assembly Bill 247<\/a> would impose $19 per hour pay for incarcerated firefighters whenever their work assignment places them in active fire incidents.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery few people realize they make $5 to $10 a day doing that work, and so legislation to increase those wages has received kind of resounding support,\u201d said Bryan.<\/p>\n

The other measure, AB 248<\/a>, doesn\u2019t necessarily have an immediate price tag, but it would remove a decades-old statewide wage cap of $2 per eight-hour shift for county jail inmate workers \u2014 many of whom have not been convicted of any crimes and are awaiting trial.<\/p>\n

Both of Bryan\u2019s measures build on the Black Caucus\u2019 efforts over the past several years to tackle the state\u2019s history of discrimination against African Americans and to implement recommendations from the California Reparations Task Force<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the immediate post-Civil War era, California prisons exploited incarcerated laborers \u2014 mostly Black and Indigenous \u2014 under threat of punishment. The task force described<\/a> current prisoner work assignments as \u201cstate-sanctioned involuntary servitude\u201d and a direct legacy of slavery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So far, the proposals that would carry out those changes have failed<\/a>, most notably when voters in November rejected Proposition 6<\/a>, the ballot measure that would have revised the state constitution to prohibit involuntary labor.<\/p>\n

This year, Bryan\u2019s bills are moving forward despite some concerns from Republican lawmakers that they could increase spending and threaten existing work programs that they support.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill ignores the fundamental purpose of inmate labor programs,\u201d Republican Assemblymember Heather Hadwick of Grass Valley said last month when she voted against the bill that would lift the cap on wages in county jails. \u201cThey’re not traditional employment. They’re part of a rehabilitation process that provides structure, skill building and a sense of responsibility. My rural counties cannot foot this bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most California county jails do not pay incarcerated workers any wages whatsoever. But when they do, they must abide by the $2 limit.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor those quick at math, that\u2019s 25 cents an hour,\u201d explained Bryan. \u201cAt that rate, combined with predatory commissary prices, it would take you a full business week to be able to afford a two-ounce tube of toothpaste and a bag of hot Cheetos.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mopping floors, cleaning toilets, preparing and distributing three meals a day for all persons in lockup \u2014 sheriffs and jailers treat these essential jobs as privileges bestowed on individuals who choose to trade work for time outside their cells and other perks, such as guaranteed daily showers or extra food.<\/p>\n

Depriving incarcerated laborers of any substantial wage also limits their ability to pay court-mandated victims\u2019 restitution fees, Bryan said. Despite working full time \u2014 and often even overtime, seven days a week \u2014 many prisoners continue to carry the debt of restitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a relic of slavery \u2014 for sure,\u201d said Bryan.<\/p>\n

\"""\/\"\/Assemblymember Isaac Bryan speaks during a floor session of the Assembly at the Capitol in Sacramento on Jan. 22, 2024. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters<\/p>\n

The California Supreme Court determined last year that county jail inmate workers \u2014 even those whose incarceration does not ultimately result in criminal convictions \u2014 are not entitled to state minimum wage requirements. In Ruelas vs. Alameda County<\/a>, the court interpreted state law to define county jail work compensation as adequate in terms of offering sentence work credit, rehabilitative value and job-skills training opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether the result here, based on an interpretation of the current statutory scheme, is a desirable policy is a matter beyond our purview, but it is not beyond the Legislature\u2019s,\u201d wrote Justice Kelli M. Evans in the April 2024 ruling. \u201cThe Legislature can, if it sees fit, adjust its approach to the payment of wages or wage credits for those awaiting adjudication of their cases as well as for convicted persons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bryan, in co-authorship with Democratic Sen. Josh Becker of Menlo Park, aims to accomplish this adjustment to the state legislation.<\/p>\n

California sheriffs oppose jail wage bill<\/p>\n

The California State Sheriffs\u2019 Association opposes the bill and said in a letter to the Assembly Public Safety Committee that it \u201cwould create pressure on counties to increase the fiscal recompense provided to inmate workers, thereby potentially limiting the availability of opportunities for work while incarcerated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bryan noted that his county jail wage bill carries zero fiscal liability and therefore does not need to pass an appropriations committee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill could pass and it could change nothing today,\u201d said Bryan. \u201cBut it does mean at some point in the future \u2014 if there’s a county where the people of that county and the board of the county decide that it’s undignified to have people working for a quarter an hour, no matter whether they are incarcerated or not \u2014 they won’t have a preemption problem with the state. That’s all we’re trying to do is remove the state thumb on the scale that shouldn’t be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assemblymember Josh Hoover of Folsom, a district known for its century-old prison, explained his support for the bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already have a $2 wage in the code, which means we have already acknowledged that there should be a wage paid,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it makes sense for local governments to be able to determine what that wage is, based upon the needs of their community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assemblymember Carl DeMaio<\/a> of San Diego said he opposes offering counties the authority to pay incarcerated workers more.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can get into the whole debate about rehabilitation, but the reality is when people are in jail, when they’re in prison, there’s a substantial cost to taxpayers,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s not unreasonable to expect inmates to help chip in to do a little bit of the work \u2014 clean their cell, do the laundry, serve the food.\u201d<\/p>\n

Work and rehabilitation in prison<\/p>\n

Yet the debate over rehabilitation did quickly find its way into the Assembly\u2019s conversation.<\/p>\n

Because Gov. Gavin Newsom bases much of his transformative California model philosophy \u2014 which emphasizes rehabilitation, education, and reentry over punishment \u2014 on reforms first developed inside Norway\u2019s prison system<\/a>, detractors often view it with skepticism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe governor likes the Norwegian model, so I’m a little suspicious about this so-called Norwegian model,\u201d DeMaio said. \u201cBut apparently there are some really good elements to the Norwegian model which includes $8 for work. Oh, no, no \u2014 not per hour, per week \u2014 and it’s part of the rehabilitation process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bryan addressed DeMaio\u2019s points in his closing. \u201cI’ve been to Norway. I’ve seen it up close,\u201d he said. \u201cFolks in Norway are allowed to vote in prison; they go home on the weekends; often and during the week, they work outside of the prison and then come back; they earn real wages in their community and store that money up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s much we can learn from the Norwegian model, and so I look forward to exploring that with my colleague from San Diego.\u201d<\/p>\n

With 51 aye votes \u2014 all Democratic, save for Hoover\u2019s lone Republican vote, 12 nays \u2014 all Republican, and 17 members (10 Democrats) formally choosing to cast no vote, the jail wage measure passed through the Assembly and now awaits Senate approval.<\/p>\n

The Anti-Recidivism Coalition supports both of Bryan\u2019s bills and co-sponsored AB 247, in addition to their overall advocacy for renewed anti-slavery legislation Assembly Constitutional Amendment 6, which would end California prison policies that require incarcerated individuals to fulfill labor obligations. Voters rejected 2024\u2019s similar Prop. 6, but the measure will most likely resurface on a 2026 ballot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we got rid of the slave movement, we really shifted into utilizing prison labor as an alternative, and using the fact that these folks have been stripped of their freedom as a means to take advantage of them,\u201d said the coalition\u2019s chief strategy consultant and lobbyist, Esteban N\u00fa\u00f1ez.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can work all day every day inside, and at the end of the month have barely enough to buy yourself what little hygiene you can. And that’s just not right. Keeping people in poverty and not compensating people fairly \u2014 purposely to keep them in poverty \u2014 it’s de-humanizing, at best.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Joe Garcia is a California Local News fellow. <\/p>\n

This article was originally published on CalMatters<\/a> and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives<\/a> license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Joe Garcia, CalMatters This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Despite voters\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,10984,9,8,3478,3480,3481],"class_list":{"0":"post-11884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-divide","10":"tag-california-headlines","11":"tag-california-news","12":"tag-legislator-card","13":"tag-prisons","14":"tag-reparations"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}