A 51-year-old California law requires the state to give $200 to prisoners upon release. Many wind up with less, according to a new class-action lawsuit.
A California prison doctor accumulated more than 1,000 hours of personal time off and used some of it to work a second job. He claimed he faced retaliation when officials began scrutinizing his time and then clawed back much of his leave bank.
California courts have long upheld below-minimum wage pay for prison inmates working a wide range of jobs. A 2024 ballot measure that would ban forced labor could alter those decisions.
California prison workers were wrongly excluded from indoor heat regulations passed earlier this year, despite facing brutal conditions that will only get worse in the coming decades.
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association faces a complicated political environment as inmate populations decline and calls to close prisons increase.
California's constitution allows forced labor as a form of criminal punishment. That would change if voters approve an anti-slavery amendment this fall.
Workers hired through a nonprofit could lose their jobs at a California state prison this fall. The State Personnel Board found their contract violated state outsourcing rules.