Proposition Summary

PRISON INMATE LABOR. TAX CREDIT. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT AND STATUTE. • Amends state Constitution to permit state prison and county jail officials to contract with public entities, businesses and others, for inmate labor. • Limits inmate labor during strike or lockout situations. • Adds statutes requiring state prison director to establish joint venture programs for employment of inmates. • Requires inmate wages be comparable to non-inmate wages for similar work. • Makes inmate wages subject to deductions for: taxes, room and board, lawful restitution fines or victim compensation, and family support. • Allows inmate's employer ten percent of wage tax credit against defined state taxes. Summary of Legislative Analyst's Estimate of Net State and Local Government Fiscal Impact: • This measure would likely result in net savings to the state because of wage deductions to offset cost of incarceration, reduction in amount of time spent in prison due to participation in joint venture program, and decreased state and local costs due to additional family support payments reducing public assistance costs. • These savings would be partially offset by costs due to revenue loss resulting from employer tax credits and possible additional administrative costs to operate program. • The magnitude of savings is impossible to quantify. • The measure's impact on local governments is impossible to estimate because the contents of local ordinances implementing contracts for use of jail labor are unknown. • Unknown indirect fiscal effects may occur to the extent this measure affects the number of jobs available in the private sector.

Proposition Number

139

Year

1990

Document Type

Proposition

Pass/Fail

Pass

Popular Vote Results

Y: 3867147; A: 54.05; N: 3288144; B: 45.95

Election Type

General Election

Proposition Type

Initiative constitutional amendment and statute

For Author

George Deukmejian, Governor, State of California; Don Novey, President, California Correctional Peace Officers Association; Doris Tate, President, Coalition of Victims Equal Rights

Against Author

John F. Henning, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, California Labor Federation; Albin J. Gruhn, President, California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO

Rebuttal Author

Sheriff Charles P. Gillingham, Sheriff of Santa Clara County; Sheriff Michael Hennessey, Sheriff of San Francisco; Melvin H. Jones, President, Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs

Rebuttal Against Author

George Deukmejian, Governor, State of California; Pete Wilson, U.S. Senator, State of California; Dan Lungren, Attorney

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