Hi all,
I have written the first and most substantial legal work on a landmark decision for prisoner's rights in California, Ruelas v. Alameda County. I am seeking publication, and have attached the abstract below. If interested please email me at jimmychilimigras@gmail.com.
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This article is a critique of the California Supreme Court’s decision in Ruelas v. County of Alameda, which upheld for the first time the use of forced labor from pretrial detainees without compensation. The decision relied heavily on California Penal Code § 4019.3, a statute originally enacted to provide modest wages to incarcerated workers which was now being used to justify the denial of minimum wage protections to unconvicted detainees. This comment analyzes the decision by exploring the historical development of carceral wage laws, the court’s strict textualist approach, and the implications of its ruling. The piece argues that Ruelas effectively legalizes modern-day slave labor in California’s county jails, disproportionately benefiting private corporations like Aramark while depriving detainees of constitutional rights. Instead, the piece asserts that the court should have applied Proposition 139, a law that was originally designed to provide a fair wage to incarcerated people in both state and county facilities with deductions taken for items such as victim compensation, family support, and prison upkeep. The article concludes that unless legislative or judicial intervention occurs, Ruelas will have long-term consequences for carceral labor policies and the broader fight against forced labor in the United States