By John L. Orr
While at Centinela State Prison (CA), in 2014, we experienced three rapid-fire rounds of price increases to popular items carried by the yard canteens. In researching the prior three years’ canteen escalations, I found the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) prisoner pay scales remained unchanged since the early 1980s.
Using the CDCR grievance process (602), I took my research as far as Sacramento CDCR HQ to get specifics on the static pay rates, hoping to form a more demonstrative argument to improve prisoners’ living conditions. HQ diverted me back to Centinela Inmate Pay Committee where I ended up spinning wheels in the Imperial Valley sand dunes.
After 3.5 years with no resolve, I finalized my study showing a 10-year average of canteen price hikes of 49% and no pay raises on the horizon.
In frustration, I wrote a 500-word article outlining the predicament, and in August 2017 the Centinela prison newspaper, The Scorpion, published the results. With positive support from now-enlightened inmates, copies of the article were sent to several assemblymen and prison reform activist organizations (Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Prison Policy Initiative, Initiate Justice/ Inside Journal, San Quentin News, etc.). Despite SASEs included in the queries, there were no return responses.
Years later, with no changes in inmate pay scales and continuing escalation of canteen prices, I approached the Mule Creek Post (MCP) prison newspaper staff about an updated article. The pay scale stagnation now reached 40 years without a raise and a proven, documented 20-year evaluation of canteen price escalations showed an astonishing 79% increase.
The 600-word article appeared in the September 2022 MCP edition, reaching over 40,000 inmates, families, and others via the state-issued GTL/ViaPath tablets.
I mailed copies of the article to the entities and activists listed above in 2017. Again, no response, but at the time California State Resolution 69 called for a “livable wage” for inmates, and Assembly Constitutional Amendment 3 sought an end to “unpaid forced labor” in the state’s prison system. The “unpaid labor” was primarily inmate workers desperately needed to keep a prison running, but the CDCR would not pay (kitchen, yard crew, and janitorial workers). Unfortunately, both proposals did not pass.
At a December 2022 Inmate Advisory Council (IAC) meeting at Mule Creek prison, Chief Deputy Warden (CDW) B. Holmes announced the CDCR was researching a proposal to increase inmate pay scales.
To further enlighten the MCP readership, a request was made to interview the CDW (1/13/23) for further specifics or a CDCR HQ address to contact the proposal researchers. The request was unanswered.
Keeping this vital issue alive during this continuing research period, I wrote an opinion piece, entitled, “CDCR Should Do More to Compensate Workers.” The article was published in the June 2023 edition of the MCP. Suggestions included surveying inmate workers for their front-line input, and a comparison of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BoP) pay model that ensured every inmate had an income. Copies of the draft of the article were sent to the CDCR deputy Director, Programs Operations (2/27/23), and Secretary of CDCR (3/21/23) requesting documents, an offer of inmate worker feedback and/or an interview. There were no responses.
Apparently, through 10 months of research, the pay raise proposal was presented and approved. On October 6, 2023, CDCR Secretary Jeffrey Macomber confirmed the changes to workforce pay scales beginning April 1st, 2024. The proclamation released on the GTL/ViaPath tablets, reached out to the entire population including all institutions that issued the tablet (over 60,000).
The Secretary’s comments mimicked observations in prior articles in the Centinela Scorpion and Mule Creek Post articles. Perhaps the power of the press exhibited its persuasiveness or, at minimum, got the ball rolling.
The new inmate pay rates are simple, as shown in a “Notice of Change of Regulation (NCR) #23-11” posted in late October 2023. These changes to Title 15 (§ 3041.2) double inmate hourly pay. Example: a clerk making 18¢ per hour currently will elevate to 36¢ per hour on April 1, 2024. Further specifics were unavailable but changes to Title 15 will likely soon appear on inmate tablets or available at prison law libraries.
Thus far, the 50% restitution deduction remains, but progress was recently made on excessively high yard canteen prices. Senate Bill 474 (Baker) reduces markups on items sold in canteens to 35%. Currently, the bump is 65%. The Governor signed the bill in October 2023 and it will go into effect on January 1, 2024. Inmates will soon have another “raise” in their buying power at prison canteens through this bill’s passage.
Discrepancies between the Secretary’s October 6 press release and the NCR 23-11 proclamations may create conflicts next year. Secretary Macomber stated some inmate jobs will be reduced to half-time working hours to enable the current “forced unpaid labor” to receive compensation. This is an admirable expectation to remedy slave-labor-like circumstances but NCR 23-11 makes no mention of this benefit.
Perhaps with a 5-6 month lead time before the April 1st implementation, staff and inmates can examine the potential conflicts of this “mystical” pay raise and resolve some of the issues. It is a start, but as is said; “If it sounds too good to be true, it is.”
