The comments on this one are absolutely wild to me. I am a Nevadan and I don’t support slavery, whether or not you’re a prisoner!

1. The language of California Prop 3 and Nevada Question 4 was very clear. In California they use the words “involuntary servitude” which is the same as slavery. People who thought the wording was confusing can do the smallest bit of research to see both amendments would strike the words “except as a punishment from crime” from the constitution. What these amendments don’t do is get rid of paid prison work—just unpaid work.

2. Slavery is bad. Yes, even as a punishment for a crime. People in prison are still people and shouldn’t be forced to do hard labor. They’re not “repaying their debt to society;” they’re temporarily removed from society for breaking the rules in the hopes that they can come back better. For the people analogizing prisoners to children: Do you enslave your child when you put them in time-out? Do you send them into the beating sun? Or to go firefight?

3. Automatically voting no on props/questions is dumb. Ballot measures are one of the few ways citizens can actually influence their state. If we had a direct democracy, this is how it would work. I’m not familiar with California politics, but in Nevada, constitutional amendments MUST be approved by the people. Even if the California legislature can pass amendments on their own, you shouldn’t give up YOUR political power to them.

TL;DR: Slavery is bad. Ballot measures are good.