Will California End Forced Prison Labor?

Nov 1, 2024

There are two initiatives on California’s ballot this November dealing with the prison-industrial complex: Proposition 36 would worsen penalties for petty crimes, increasing the prison population and reversing more than a decade of decarceration efforts; Proposition 6 would end forced slavery inside California prisons.

Prison abolitionists are calling for a “No” vote on Prop. 36 and a “Yes” vote on Prop. 6. With little public education on the propositions, polls show the reverse outcome is likely.

Dortell Williams, who is serving a life sentence without parole at Mule Creek State Prison in California, spoke with YES! Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on YES! Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about Prop. 6, putting it in a national and historical context and discussing how it could close a “forced labor loophole” in the state.

Sonali Kolhatkar joined YES! in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of YES! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute’s Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice (2023) and Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence (2005). Her forthcoming book is called Talking About Abolition (Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women’s Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master’s in Astronomy from the University of Hawai’i, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on “My Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host” in her 2014 TEDx talk of the same name.