A Denver judge last week ruled the Colorado Department of Corrections violated the state’s ban on involuntary servitude following a class action lawsuit from people incarcerated in Colorado. 

Judge Sarah B. Wallace said in her ruling that the department cannot threaten or impose isolation for more than two days and cannot charge people with offenses under the prison disciplinary code for refusing to work. Current department policies allowing punishment for refusing to work violate the Colorado Constitution. 

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The plaintiffs, led by Harold Mortis, said the state punished incarcerated people who refused to participate in mandatory work programs. Incarcerated people can lose privileges and “earned time,” which accelerates parole eligibility, and can be sent to restrictive housing if they refuse to work. 

Nearly two-thirds of Colorado voters supported Amendment A in 2018, which repealed the state’s “exception clause” — a provision in the 13th Amendment and many state constitutions that banned slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for a crime. It was the first state to abolish its exception clause. The state constitution now simply reads: “There shall never be in this state either slavery or involuntary servitude.”

In her ruling, Wallace said that “the machinery of coercion is not isolated but is a pervasive and actively operationalized feature of CDOC’s labor management.” 

The case, Mortis v. Polis, was brought in Denver District Court by progressive legal advocates including Towards Justice, End Slavery Colorado and Maxted Law. The trial for the lawsuit filed in 2022 took place in October. 

Much of what happens inside prisons “has nothing to do” with public safety, but is more about “profit and power,” David Seligman, executive director of Towards Justice and a Democratic candidate for Colorado attorney general, said.

“This is like a first-in-the-nation case, and we hope that it helps to set a massive and critical precedent that people who are incarcerated have basic and fundamental rights,” Seligman said.

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Alondra Gonzalez-Garcia, spokesperson for the Department of Corrections, said the department will evaluate the legal and operational implications of the ruling to determine next steps. She said the department’s programs are designed to provide vocational training and rehabilitative opportunities to support reentry into the community.

“The Department of Corrections agrees that slavery and forced labor are wrong and illegal and do not believe we have engaged in either,” she said in a statement. “The Department remains committed to upholding the Colorado Constitution, and believes we have been despite the ruling. We are also committed to ensuring the safety and security of our facilities, staff, and the incarcerated population.”

While he agreed that work programs within the state prisons can be critical for rehabilitation, Seligman said coerced labor does not further rehabilitative goals. 

“For labor and work to actually … help us minimize recidivism, and make sure that people leaving prison come back in communities and are in a position where they can help to lead productive and fulfilling lives, the labor needs to be voluntary,” Seligman said. “There needs to be autonomy in it.”

Seligman said he hopes to have a collaborative relationship with the Department of Corrections, the governor’s office and the attorney general’s office to ensure work programs empower people and minimize recidivism. 

“We want to be eager participants in that project,” Seligman said. “I think in some ways this victory is sort of the beginning of that project, the beginning of that collaboration, we hope.” 

Minimum-wage laws do not apply to incarcerated workers in Colorado, who as of 2022 earned between $0.33 and $1.61 per hour. Other workplace protections also don’t apply to incarcerated people.