End Coerced Prison Labor

The Problem

On November 6, 2018, nearly two-thirds of Colorado voters approved Amendment A, striking the “exception clause” from the state constitution. Colorado became the first state in the nation to abolish the provision - inherited from the 13th Amendment - that permitted slavery and involuntary servitude “as punishment for a crime.” The state constitution now reads, without qualification: “There shall never be in this state either slavery or involuntary servitude.”

Seven years later, nothing has changed inside Colorado’s prisons.

The Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) continues to operate mandatory work programs under which incarcerated people earn between $0.33 and $1.61 per hour (ACLU, Captive Labor Report, 2022). Those who refuse to work face a range of punishments:

• Removal from “incentive” living units
• Loss of recreation time and personal electronics
• Restricted access to canteen purchases (snacks, hygiene products, stamps)
• Fewer opportunities for calls and visits from family members
• Loss of “earned time” credits that accelerate parole eligibility - meaning refusal to work can literally extend a person’s time in prison

The state’s position, stated in court filings in Mortis v. Polis, is that these are merely “privileges” and that withholding them “is not so coercive as to constitute slavery or involuntary servitude.” To the state, losing contact with your family because you refused to work for 33 cents an hour is not coercion. It is an incentive.

Meanwhile, incarcerated workers receive none of the protections that apply to every other worker in Colorado:

• No minimum wage. Colorado’s minimum wage is $15.16/hour (2026). Incarcerated workers earn 2-11% of that.
• No OSHA protections. Workers operate in industrial laundries, kitchens, and manufacturing facilities with no workplace safety regulations.
• No sick days. Former inmates report going to work ill out of fear of being sent to restrictive housing - conditions similar to solitary confinement.
• No workers’ compensation. Injuries on the job receive no guaranteed medical treatment or compensation.
• No right to organize. Incarcerated workers cannot form unions or collectively bargain.

This is a system where human beings work under threat of punishment, for pay that amounts to pennies, without any of the legal protections that society considers the bare minimum for dignified labor. Colorado voters were asked whether this should continue, and they said no. The state ignored them.

The Lawsuit: Mortis v. Polis

In October 2025, a class-action trial began in Denver District Court challenging CDOC’s work program as a violation of Amendment A. The case, Mortis v. Polis, was brought by Towards Justice and other legal advocates on behalf of incarcerated people who say the state is punishing them for exercising their constitutional right not to perform involuntary labor. Judge Sarah B. Wallace granted class-action status in 2024.

The plaintiffs’ argument is straightforward: when you punish someone for refusing to work - by taking away their family contact, their earned time toward parole, their housing conditions - you are coercing their labor. That is involuntary servitude. Colorado’s constitution now prohibits it, without exception.

The state’s defense is equally revealing: that the consequences for refusing to work amount to the removal of “privileges,” and because inmates have no “entitlement” to these privileges, withholding them cannot constitute coercion. The state is arguing that the constitutional language Colorado voters approved means nothing in practice - that you can ban involuntary servitude while maintaining a system of involuntary servitude, as long as you call the punishments “incentive adjustments.”

What Denver Currently Does

Denver does not operate state prisons - CDOC is a state agency. But Denver is the seat of state government, home to the largest concentration of formerly incarcerated Coloradans, and the jurisdiction where Mortis v. Polis is being tried. Denver’s city government and congressional delegation have standing to advocate for enforcement of the constitutional amendment that Denver voters overwhelmingly supported.

Denver currently does nothing specific to address coerced prison labor. This policy proposes changing that.

Who Opposes This (and Why)

CDOC and the governor’s office are the direct opponents. The state’s prison work programs generate substantial economic value - incarcerated workers maintain prison facilities (cooking, cleaning, laundry, maintenance), produce goods through Colorado Correctional Industries (CCI), and perform labor that would otherwise require paid civilian workers. Paying incarcerated workers fair wages or making work truly voluntary would increase corrections costs.

Colorado Correctional Industries (CCI) operates as a self-funded enterprise within CDOC, employing incarcerated workers to manufacture furniture, license plates, eyewear, and other products sold to government agencies and nonprofits. CCI’s business model depends on paying workers a fraction of minimum wage.

Private sector employers who contract with prison labor programs benefit from below-market labor costs. Any reform that raises wages or reduces the captive labor pool threatens this cost advantage.

The counterargument is simple: the voters already decided this. Amendment A did not include a fiscal note or a carve-out for economic convenience. It banned involuntary servitude. Full stop.

Our Solution

Enforce Amendment A: The Colorado Prison Labor Reform Act

1. Make All Prison Work Truly Voluntary

• No incarcerated person in Colorado may face any penalty, loss of privilege, reduction in earned time, housing reassignment, or any other adverse consequence for declining to participate in a work program
• “Voluntary” means voluntary. If saying no carries punishment, it is not voluntary - it is coerced labor, and it violates the Colorado Constitution
• CDOC must develop non-work programming alternatives (education, vocational training, therapy, recreation) available to all incarcerated people regardless of work participation
• Independent monitoring: an ombudsman or inspector general, not employed by CDOC, must audit compliance with voluntariness requirements and publish findings publicly

2. Pay Incarcerated Workers a Fair Wage

• Incarcerated workers must be paid no less than Colorado’s minimum wage ($15.16/hour as of 2026)
• Reasonable deductions for room and board are permitted (capped at 25% of gross wages, consistent with federal garnishment limits) - but the base wage must be real
• Workers must receive pay stubs showing hours, rate, and deductions
• Wages must be deposited in accounts accessible to the worker, not seized by CDOC
• Why this matters beyond fairness: incarcerated people with savings at release are significantly less likely to recidivate. Paying real wages is a public safety investment. People who leave prison with $500 in their pocket are demonstrably less likely to commit crimes than people who leave with nothing (Pew Charitable Trusts, 2018)

3. Extend Workplace Safety Protections

• OSHA standards must apply to all prison work environments, including industrial laundries, kitchens, manufacturing, and agricultural operations
• Incarcerated workers must have the right to report unsafe conditions without retaliation
• Regular safety inspections by an independent agency - not CDOC self-inspection
• Sick leave: incarcerated workers must be able to refuse work when ill without consequence. No one should have to choose between working sick and solitary confinement
• Workers’ compensation or equivalent medical coverage for workplace injuries

4. End the Exception Clause Nationally

• Denver’s U.S. House representative and Colorado’s U.S. Senators should cosponsor federal legislation to amend the 13th Amendment and remove the “except as a punishment for crime” clause
• Colorado should lead a coalition of states that have already amended their constitutions (Colorado, Utah, Nebraska, Alabama, Tennessee, Vermont, Oregon) to advocate for the federal amendment
• Denver City Council should pass a resolution calling for the federal exception clause’s repeal

5. Support Returning Citizens

• People leaving prison with real wages saved have better reentry outcomes. But wages alone aren’t enough
• Denver should fund transitional employment programs specifically for formerly incarcerated residents, connecting them to jobs that pay living wages with benefits
• Expunge barriers: advocate at the state level for automatic record expungement for low-level offenses, and ban the box in all Denver city hiring and contracting
• Cross-reference: Community Safety & Police Reform (returning citizen housing support), Decriminalize & Heal (expungement provisions)

International Evidence: Forced Prison Labor Is an American Outlier

The pattern is unambiguous: Countries that treat prison labor as voluntary, compensated, and rehabilitative have dramatically lower recidivism rates than the United States. Forced, uncompensated labor does not rehabilitate - it extracts value from captive people and releases them with nothing.

How We Pay For It

This policy is primarily a state-level mandate. Denver’s role is advocacy, not direct funding. However:

State cost implications:

• Paying incarcerated workers minimum wage would cost CDOC an estimated $50-100M/year, depending on how many workers participate voluntarily at fair wages
• This is offset by: reduced recidivism (each prevented re-incarceration saves $40-60K/year), reduced litigation costs (the state is currently defending Mortis v. Polis with taxpayer money), and economic benefits of returning citizens with savings and job skills
• Colorado Correctional Industries would need to adjust its pricing model to reflect real labor costs - which means government agencies currently buying CCI products at artificially low prices would pay market rates. This is not a cost increase. It is the end of a subsidy underwritten by captive labor

Denver cost implications:

• Transitional employment programs for returning citizens: $3-5M/year (from existing workforce development budget + federal reentry grants)
• City Council resolution and advocacy: $0
• This policy costs Denver almost nothing. The moral cost of doing nothing is higher

Frequently Asked Questions

“Don’t prison work programs teach job skills and reduce recidivism?” Voluntary work programs with real training and fair compensation can improve outcomes - the evidence from Norway and Germany supports this. But that is not what Colorado operates. Colorado’s program pays pennies, offers minimal transferable skills (operating an industrial prison laundry does not translate to employment), and punishes refusal. Coerced labor at sub-minimum wages does not rehabilitate. It extracts. If the state wants to argue that work programs are rehabilitative, it should make them voluntary, pay fairly, and provide certifications that employers recognize. If the program is genuinely good for inmates, they will choose to participate without threats.

“Can inmates really just refuse to work with no consequences?” That is what the Colorado Constitution now requires, yes. “There shall never be in this state either slavery or involuntary servitude” does not include the words “unless it’s inconvenient for corrections budgets.” If work is truly voluntary, some people will decline. The state must develop meaningful non-work programming - education, vocational training, therapy, substance use treatment - for those who do. This is what Norway, Germany, and Finland already do.

“Won’t this cost taxpayers a fortune?” It costs $40-60K/year to incarcerate one person in Colorado. The US recidivism rate is 76% - meaning three-quarters of released prisoners return. Countries that pay incarcerated workers fairly and treat labor as voluntary have recidivism rates of 20-40%. If fair wages and voluntary work reduce Colorado’s recidivism rate even modestly, the savings in reduced re-incarceration dwarf the wage costs. Paying someone $15.16/hour during incarceration and having them not return is cheaper than paying them $0.33/hour and re-incarcerating them at $50K/year.

“Isn’t this a state issue, not a Denver issue?” CDOC is a state agency, yes. But Denver is the state capital, the city where Mortis v. Polis is being tried, and home to the largest population of formerly incarcerated people in Colorado. Denver’s City Council can pass resolutions, Denver’s congressional delegation can push federal legislation, and Denver’s workforce programs can support returning citizens directly. Cities don’t have to wait for the state to act on issues that affect their residents.

“The state says these are just ‘privileges,’ not coercion.” The state’s argument in Mortis v. Polis is that losing family contact, recreation, earned time toward parole, and preferred housing is not coercive because inmates have no “entitlement” to these things. Apply this logic anywhere else: if your employer said “you can refuse to work, but we’ll cut your access to your family, put you in isolation, and extend your contract” - no one would call that voluntary. The legal fiction that incarcerated people have no rights to basic human needs is exactly what Amendment A was intended to abolish.

“What about the victims of their crimes?” Victims deserve justice. Justice is not served by a system that produces a 76% recidivism rate - meaning three-quarters of incarcerated people will commit new crimes after release. If the goal is public safety, the evidence overwhelmingly shows that fair treatment, real wages, and rehabilitative programming during incarceration produce better outcomes than punitive extraction. Norway’s 20% recidivism rate means 80% of released prisoners never offend again. That is what serving victims looks like.

References

• Colorado Constitution, Article II, Section 26 (as amended by Amendment A, 2018). “There shall never be in this state either slavery or involuntary servitude.”
• Colorado Secretary of State. (2018). Official Election Results: Amendment A. (65% approval.)
• ACLU. (2022). Captive Labor: Exploitation of Incarcerated Workers. (National prison labor data; $0.13-$0.52/hr average wages; 800,000+ incarcerated workers; $11B+ annual value.)
• ACLU. (2022). State-level wage data: Colorado incarcerated worker wages $0.33-$1.61/hr.
• Woodruff, C. (2025). “Colorado trial over coerced prison labor begins in Denver.” Colorado Newsline, October 7, 2025. (Mortis v. Polis trial coverage; CDOC filing quotes; rally testimony.)
• Mortis v. Polis, Denver District Court. (2022). State’s Response to Plaintiffs’ Complaint. (“Prison privileges are just that - privileges.”)
• Pew Charitable Trusts. (2018). Money and Mobility: Financial Outcomes for Incarcerated People. (Savings at release and recidivism reduction.)
• Norwegian Correctional Service. Recidivism statistics. (20% recidivism rate; voluntary compensated prison labor model.)
• German Federal Statistical Office. Recidivism and prison labor compensation data. (35-40% recidivism.)
• Vera Institute of Justice. (2022). The Price of Jails: Measuring the Taxpayer Cost of Local Incarceration. ($40-60K/year incarceration cost.)
• End Slavery Colorado campaign. Campaign and advocacy materials. (Amendment A organizing history.)
• Towards Justice. Mortis v. Polis case materials and public statements. (David Seligman, executive director.)
• World Prison Brief. International incarceration rate comparisons.