(CN) — The California Supreme Court on Tuesday heard arguments over whether pretrial county jail detainees are entitled to minimum wage and overtime pay while working for the private contractor that supplies meals to state correctional facilities.
The state's top court was asked to resolve the question by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a case brought by a group of inmates housed in Santa Rita Jail who did kitchen work for Aramark, a company that provides food and other services to schools, hospitals and prisons.
A federal judge in 2021 allowed the claims of the pretrial inmates under California's labor code to proceed. The state's penal code explicitly addresses employment and wages for convicted prison inmates, and excludes these from labor code protections — but leaves it open whether non-convicted, pretrial jail inmates are excluded from these protections, the judge found.
Both Aramark and Alameda County, where Santa Rita Jail is located, appealed the judge's denial of their bids to dismiss the class action and argued their case before the California Supreme Court.
Among their arguments that appeared to resonate with the court on Tuesday was a provision of the California penal code that states county board of supervisors may compensate jail inmates for work they perform, but it can't be more than $2 for eight hours.
That cap, Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero observed, was hard to harmonize with the claim for minimum wage and overtime pay.
In addition, as Aramark attorney Kevin King argued, allowing pretrial inmates to be entitled to certain provisions of the state's labor code, such as minimum wage and overtime pay, could indicate they're also eligible for other provisions, like paid parental leave.
"What is the limiting principle that would prevent other provisions to apply as well?" Associate Justice Martin Jenkins asked the prisoners' attorney.
The question before the court involved not only the tension between the state's labor and penal codes, but also the ramifications of a 1990 ballot initiative, Proposition 139, that amended the California constitution to allow prisons and jails to contract with private, for-profit businesses to operate inmate work programs.
The ballot initiative was meant to reduce the state's costs of housing inmates, create a means for them to pay restitution to victims, and provide them with job training. But while Proposition 139 included specific requirements for work and pay for prison inmates, it left the rules for the work programs in county jails such as Santa Rita to be overseen by the local county boards.
The pretrial inmates at Santa Rita worked under the supervision of Aramark employees to prepare and package meals, which were sold to third parties under a $19-million, three-year contract with the county. They received no payment at all for their work, according to their attorney.
"We have a situation that is unregulated," the inmates' attorney Dan Siegel told the court. "These inmates, who haven't been convicted of any crime and who are incarcerated because they can't afford to pay bail, are simply moved around as tokens."
Siegel also pointed out that the penal code provision that caps county inmates' pay at $2 a day was enacted before the public-private partnerships for work programs existed, and shouldn't be applied to the current situation.
Under the California penal code state inmates get paid for work they perform in prison, including for for-profit outside contractors, but up to 80% of their wages are used to mitigate the costs of their incarceration, to compensate crime victims and to support their families. The law has no express provision for county inmates who participate in the work programs.
That discrepancy didn't go unnoticed by the court. As Associate Justice Kelli Evans wondered, "How can it be that convicted prisoners can be paid a prevailing wage and unconvicted inmates nothing?"
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