20250ACA_000699INT INTRODUCED 2025-02-06 2025 ACA INT Introduced by Assembly Member Wilson LEAD_AUTHOR ASSEMBLY Wilson A resolution to propose to the people of the State of California an amendment to the Constitution of the State, by amending

Section of

Article I thereof, relating to slavery. slavery Slavery. The California Constitution prohibits slavery and prohibits involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. This measure would instead prohibit slavery in all forms. This measure would 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. TWO_THIRDS NO YES NO

WHEREAS, The California Constitution has explicitly allowed involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime since 1849, more than years before slavery was abolished in the United States; and

WHEREAS, More than 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 2025–26 Regular Session commencing on the second day of December 2024, 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 of

Article I thereof is amended to read:

SEC. 6. (

a) Slavery in all forms is prohibited. (

b) 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. (

c) Amendments made to this

section by the measure adding this subdivision shall become operative on January 1, 2027.