If voted into law, Proposition 6 would abolish forced labor as a criminal punishment in the state’s prisons
  • Badabinski
    12•2 months ago

    The article mentions Utah as a state where the slavery exception was removed from the constitution. This is true, but we’ve fucked it up in typical Utah fashion. The state constitution now reads as:

    Article I, Section 21. [Slavery and involuntary servitude forbidden – Limitation.] (1) Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist within this State. (2) Subsection (1) does not apply to the otherwise lawful administration of the criminal justice system.

    If there’s a condition on whether slavery is acceptable, then it’s not “abolished.” God, our legislature is such an embarrassing clown car…

    EDIT: I did some more research on this because it was bugging me. I looked at the language of the 2020 amendment, an independent analysis of the amendment text, and arguments made in favor of the amendment. Based on that, I believe that the exception is trying to ensure that we can still put people in jail, not that we’re allowed to use them as slave labor when they’re in jail. I think it’s also supposed to make it possible for people in jail to participate in work programs if they want.

    With that being said, I think it’s a fucking sloppy piece of work. The text as written would be easily “misinterpreted” by someone who stands to make a financial gain from slave labor. I don’t know who authored this amendment, but I feel that they did a bad job.

      • Badabinski
        4•2 months ago

        It’s truly astounding legislation. Like, our legislature doesn’t pass laws that I would consider “positive” very frequently. When they do, there’s a 60-70% chance that some shithead real estate developer (which is most of the people in our house and Senate) will slip in something that either completely ruins the bill, or at the very least, ensures that we’re only able to half-ass the implementation of said bill.

        Fuck, even their stupid culture war bills are like this. They passed a bill that forces people to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender at birth when in government buildings. To report violations of this stupid law, they set up a tip hotline with the state auditor’s office. In Utah, this is the person who is supposed to like, check for government corruption/overspending. Instead of doing any of that, the auditor’s office has had to deal with thousands of calls, where, according to them, less than 10 had any substance. The best part is that the state auditor has no authority when it comes to enforcement, so they have to refer those cases to the police who then have to investigate everything again and I don’t think a single person has gotten in trouble since this stupid bill was passed. It’s wasteful and is perfectly representative of the type of government wastefulness that my fiscally conservative father encountered while living in California and blames solely on Democrats.

        Fuck, I hate those fucking clowns. I often say that it blows my mind how such a beautiful place can be run by such incompetent people with such ugly intentions.

  • @LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
    2•2 months ago

    Not sure if this will be a good year for this topic but I hope so. Seems like there might be a sort of “law and order” sentiment among the voters this year. I’m a little worried about it, honestly.