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ACA-8 Slavery.(2023-2024)

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ACA8:v94#DOCUMENT

Assembly Constitutional Amendment No. 8
CHAPTER 133

A resolution to propose to the people of the State of California an amendment to the Constitution of the State, by amending Section 6 of Article I thereof, relating to slavery.

[ Filed with Secretary of State  June 27, 2024. ]

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


ACA 8, Wilson. Slavery.
The California Constitution prohibits slavery and prohibits involuntary servitude, except as punishment to a crime.
This measure would instead prohibit slavery in any form. This measure would prohibit the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from disciplining any incarcerated person for refusing a work assignment. The measure would also clarify that its provisions do not prohibit the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from awarding credits to an incarcerated person who voluntarily accepts a work assignment.
Vote: 2/3   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  
WHEREAS, The California Constitution has explicitly allowed involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime since 1849, more than 15 years before slavery was abolished in the United States; and
WHEREAS, More than 150 years after slavery was abolished, correctional institutions continue to rely on the involuntary servitude exception in the California Constitution to demand forced labor from incarcerated people; and
WHEREAS, Forced labor has no redeeming qualities and is inconsistent with California’s respect for human dignity; and
WHEREAS, It is the intent of the Legislature that no person in the State of California, regardless of their circumstance of confinement, be subjected to slavery or involuntary servitude in the state of California and any place subject to its jurisdiction; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That the Legislature of the State of California at its 2023–24 Regular Session commencing on the fifth day of December 2022, two-thirds of the membership of each house concurring, hereby proposes to the people of the State of California, that the Constitution of the State be amended as follows:

 That Section 6 of Article I thereof is amended to read:

SEC. 6.
 (a) Slavery and involuntary servitude are prohibited.
(b) The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shall not discipline any incarcerated person for refusing a work assignment.
(c) Nothing in this section shall prohibit the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from awarding credits to an incarcerated person who voluntarily accepts a work assignment.
(d) Amendments made to this section by the measure adding this subdivision shall become operative on January 1, 2025.