California AB 1144: Public Employees' Medical and Hospital Care Act: City of Carson.

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 Bill Text - AB-1144 Prisons: elderly employment.

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 |Add To My Favorites |Track Bill | Version: 04/10/25 - Amended Assembly
 02/20/25 - Introduced

 AB-1144 Prisons: elderly employment.(2025-2026)

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 Date Published: 04/10/2025 09:00 PM

AB1144:v98#DOCUMENTBill Start

 Amended
 IN 
 Assembly
 April 10, 2025

 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION

 Assembly Bill

No. 1144

Introduced by Assembly Member McKinnor

February 20, 2025

 An act to amend Sections 2700 and 4017 of the Penal Code Code, relating to prisons. 

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 1144, as amended, McKinnor.
 Prisons: elderly employment.

The California Constitution prohibits involuntary servitude, but exempts from this provision any servitude that is a punishment for a crime. Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to require each able-bodied inmate, including a condemned inmate, to work as prescribed by CDCR regulations. Existing CDCR regulations require each inmate to participate in 8 hours per day of programming, including labor, education, counseling, physical fitness, and other programs, 5 days per week.

Existing law also authorizes a board of supervisors or city council, through an order, to require all persons confined in a county or city jail, industrial farm, or road camp, as specified, to perform labor on the public works or ways in the county or city, respectively, and to engage in the prevention and suppression of forest,
 brush, and grass fires upon lands within the county or city, respectively.

Notwithstanding any other law, the California Constitution, as amended by Proposition 57 at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, grants CDCR the authority to award credits earned for good behavior and approved rehabilitative or educational achievements.

This bill would authorize inmates 55 years of age or older, or inmates with mental or physical disabilities, as defined, except those sentenced to death, in state prison or county jail to elect whether to continue to work, reduce the number of hours worked, or retire. The bill would prohibit CDCR from punishing the inmate, in specified ways including a change or reduction in privilege group assignment, based on their election.

Digest Key

 Vote:
 MAJORITY 
 Appropriation:
 NO 
 Fiscal Committee:
 YES 
 Local Program:
 NO 

Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 Section 2700 of the Penal Code is amended to read:

2700.

 (a) (1) The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shall require of every able-bodied prisoner under 55 years of age or any prisoner who does not have a mental or physical disability who is imprisoned in any state prison as many hours of faithful labor in each day and every day during their
 term of imprisonment as shall be prescribed by the rules and regulations of the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

(2) Prisoners 55 years of age and older or prisoners with mental or physical disabilities shall elect whether to continue to work, to reduce the number of hours worked, or to cease working and retire.

(b) Whenever by any statute a price is required to be fixed for any services to be performed in connection with the work program of the Department of Corrections, the compensation paid to prisoners shall be included as an item of cost in fixing the final statutory price.

(c) Prisoners not engaged in work programs under the jurisdiction of the Prison Industry Authority, but who are engaged in productive labor outside of those programs may be compensated in like manner. The compensation of prisoners, including those 55 years of age and older or prisoners with mental and physical disabilities and who have opted for part-time work, shall be paid either out of funds appropriated by the Legislature for that purpose or out of other funds available to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for expenditure, as the Director of Finance may direct.

(d) When a prisoner escapes, the secretary shall determine what portion of their earnings shall be forfeited and that forfeiture shall be deposited in
 the State Treasury in a fund known as the Inmate Welfare Fund of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

(e) The department shall not punish a prisoner who refuses to work pursuant to subdivision (a). For the purposes of this subdivision, punishment inc