In 1990, then-Gov. George Deukmejian of California established an organization called "Citizens for Prison Inmate Labor" and had a legal petition circulated to place the Prison Inmate Labor Initiative on the statewide ballot. The initiative, which became known as Proposition 139, was passed by the California voters in November 1990.
Briefly, the proposition was a program for private companies to build factories and service operations on the grounds of California's state prisons and county jails, using prison manpower as employees.
It is time to revitalize this proposition and put the inmates to work.
Following are some excerpts taken from a letter by Deukmejian to California taxpayers:
"Right now, you and every other taxpayer in California pay to keep convicted criminals in our state prison system. The impact of this program would be substantial savings to California taxpayers. The savings would be realized in room and board reimbursement, restitution payments to victims, payment by the prisoner of state and federal taxes, reduced parole and prisoner family support costs and increased employment skills for the prisoner. And, the reduction of prisoners returning to the correctional system would be the greatest savings to the state. Prisoners would learn job skills that would help them get jobs after they are released, making it less likely for them to return to a life of crime.
"Today, the taxpaying citizens of California are paying double for criminals. We pay by being the victims of their crimes, then we pay billions per year to keep them in prison -- just so they can sit around and do nothing. By allowing this to go on, we're telling criminals that crime does, in fact, pay if they live in California."
-- Irma Schneider, Ventura