Published by KQED
On Christmas Eve in 2012, Amika Mota and the firefighters of Madera County Station Five responded to a house fire call.
When she realized the homeowners had children, Mota and her crew began pulling out gifts and family heirlooms to save the kids’ Christmas.
Mota, who was a lead engineer in the fire department, later learned that the house belonged to a correctional officer at the Central California Women’s Prison she knew. Firefighting was just one of the jobs Mota performed during her seven years in prison, putting her life on the line for 34 cents an hour.
Mota told KQED the work constituted forced labor.
“We cannot choose to not do this work without potentially being punished in prison,” Mota said.
Voters in 15 states, including Utah, Nebraska and Alabama, have ended forced labor in prisons, closing legal loopholes that allow states to permit legal slavery as a punishment for crime. Why didn’t a similar measure — Proposition 6 — easily pass in California, a state hoping to establish itself as a legal bulwark against the second Trump administration?