The props are worded so insanely that without hours of prep, I would vote incorrectly.
My state banned ranked choice voting by an insane margin because it was worded like “only citizens should be allowed to vote, and each citizen only gets one vote each!” Literally two Google searches would clear it up if people had more critical thinking skills
That’s what I’d call a rigged election.
This is also one of the downsides of citizen ballot initiatives. The proponent can usually word things however they want.
In Mass., I know they have a strict judicial review for the language. It requires a clear and fair statement, and it gets refined through a unique type of litigation.
In character for the US. Now it just has to play a Civil War movie and some patriotic montage to act like it isn’t there.
What were the ad campaigns like around this proposition?
I dunno, I voted for it, but California has HUGE conservative areas and the notion of working off your sentence isn’t exactly new or seen as particularly cruel by most. Also the comparisons to slavery will fall on deaf ears because it’s as much slavery as imprisoning people is kidnapping.
If you are OK with prisons, forced labor within them isn’t going to seem significantly harsher.
In California they have prisoners fight the wildfires. I find it sickening, but it’s a popular program. I wonder if that’s where this result comes from. The wildfires get worse and worse and they need bodies to sacrifice. Depressing.
My thoughts as well.
It’s the wildfires. They don’t want to pay more in taxes to hire more firefighters, at least that’s what makes sense to me.
It’s still an abominably shitty thing and, IMHO, a human rights violation too.
They don’t want to pay more in taxes to hire more firefighters, at least that’s what makes sense to me.
california is like richer than most countries in the world. dnc and its upper class base is more rotten that i had thought. no wonder 15 million democrats don’t want to vote for these cronies.
It’s at least a volunteer program, they aren’t directly forcing people to fight the fires. A lot of people, the prisoners included, consider it a way of repaying their debt to society. I’m pretty sure I don’t agree with a great deal of the situation in which it exists, but I do think that if I was in prison, being able to to something, feel like I still matter, would be some comfort.
That’s a volunteer program. This is inside the prison work and comes with physical and mental punishment if you refuse.
Oh no you seem to think I’m defending this so let’s break this down.
You can circumvent the normal prison labor system by volunteering to fight fires. This comes with perks and good time. Or you can exist in the normal prison labor system making products under threat of mental or physical abuse.
So joining the firefighters is also extremely coercive because it requires you to risk your life for your freedom, privileges, and keeping you away from the abusive labor system the other prisoners exist in.
None of this is good.
Not exactly “voluntary” in a meaningful way if the alternative is in-prison work or punishment.