Californians didn’t know what they were doing.

So say the advocates that want state prison inmates paid the minimum wage of $16 an hour for tasks such as cleaning cells, doing laundry, and cooking three meals a day for their fellow convicted felons.

They are aghast voters overwhelmingly rejected Proposition 6 on Nov. 5.

It was the measure that would have made “involuntary servitude” illegal in California prisons. Backers argued it is a form of slavery.

As such, they claim Californians were misled by State Attorney Rob Bonta by his not allowing their belief what happens in prison with inmates paid 25 cents an hour is slavery to be stated as such in the proposition’s title and official summary. And they are pointing to the fact Nevada – a state that is definitely a lot redder than California likely will ever be for years to come in the dreams of Republicans – passed a similar measure on Nov. 5.

The truth be told — which is what Bonta’s job is regarding proposition titles and summaries appearing on the ballot — that is not the case.

The Nevada ballot measure referenced making “slavery and involuntary servitude” illegal in the Silver State’s constitution.

California in the 1970s cleaned up its Constitution to remove any reference to slavery.

Yes, slavery was abolished in 1865 universally in the United States but with the exception for criminal punishment through the adoption of the 13th Amendment.

The reality of what California’s constitution actually says is why Bonta refused to bend to pressure by advocates to have the words “slavery of any kind is prohibited” included. The terms “involuntary servitude” and “slavery” are not mutually exclusive.

Inmates in California jails and prisons can be compelled to work, be punished with solitary confinement, or lose privileges such as the ability to make phone calls. The U.S. Supreme Court, whether they had more liberal or more conservative justices, have not stricken down involuntary servitude for inmates as being unconstitutional.

Making people work against their will is permitted for those convicted of a crime. Picking up litter by those handed sentences for DUIs and such for “free” is involuntary servitude.

In California’s state prisons, inmates basically fill jobs needed to keep the place running. They are paid 16 cents to 74 cents per hour as of April 16 for partial and full-time work. That comes out to between $24  and $112 a month. Those are roughly the equivalent rates for 7 hour work days and 22 days per month. The new rates, by the way, are double what they were for decades.

There are 39,000 out of 94,600 prison inmates statewide with jobs such as construction, maintenance, food service, laundry, and custodial.

There are 1,100 inmates on a different scale of $5.80 to $10.24 a day as firefighters. That’s twice the amount as it was prior to April 16.

An additional $1 per hour is paid to inmate firefighters when they are battling active fires.

Prison rights advocates argue by paying such low wages it will ensure felons when they are paroled will be living in poverty. They also note the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation deducts roughly 55 percent of all inmate wages paid to go toward paying court-ordered restitution for victims

It is clear that forced labor for punishment for being convicted of a crime doesn’t translate into slavery per se under the U.S. Constitution.

What Proposition 6 advocates fail to mention is the Nevada measure was much different in one key aspect: It actually did not eliminate involuntary servitude in Nevada prisons. Unlike Proposition 6, which would have banned it outright in California had it passed, the measure passed by Nevada voters still allowed judges to impose it but not prison officials.

Despite that, prison rights advocates argue Californians are not necessarily calling for the state to be tougher on criminals. They don’t see passage of Proposition 36 and rejection of Proposition 6 as a sign that the voters in the nation’s leading state when it comes to “progressive” solutions to addressing crime want to change course across the board. Instead, they view rejecting of Proposition 6 as a fluke because the attorney general of the most progressive state in the union refused to basically lie and mislead voters to advance a progressive agenda.

Voters are not stupid. They are already on the hook to shelter and feed — as well as cover medical care than can include expensive gender reassignment surgeries — convicted murders, rapists, armed robbers, con artists that shake down people, and those that inflict bodily harm on others.

Proposition 6 would have basically upped the top hourly pay for inmates doing jobs needed to feed and shelter them from 74 cents to $16 an hour. Worse yet, it would be tied to inflationary increases for minimum-wage. That would mean a full-time job in a prison laundry would have earned an inmate $2,400 a month. Explain that to someone who followed the law all of their life while toiling in fairly low-paying jobs that secured them a $1,600-a-month Social Security death.

It’s kind of odd that prison rights advocates have a one-way street view is incarceration.

Perhaps all prisoners should be charged $900 a month for a cell — on the low end of what a room rents for in a house. Toss in $40 a day for meal service, $20 a week for laundry, $50 a month for their share of utility costs (electricity, sewer, and water) and whatever other “services” California taxpayers are forced to pay for outside of staffing and other maintenance costs such as re-roofing. That would come to $2,230 a month. Deduct all that and an inmate working full time would pocket $100 a month instead of $112.

Whoops, almost forgot. Since they are making enough money to pay federal and state taxes and they are single, that means they owe at least $500 a year to Uncle Sam and Sacramento. That would bring their net pay down to $700 a year or $58 a month.

It’s almost exactly what they earned before their pay was doubled on April 16.

And they still have the deal of the millennium when compared to their victims who they either killed, paralyzed, terrorized, crippled, maimed, raped or robbed them of their life savings.

—  This column is the opinion of Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Courier or 209 Multimedia. He may be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com