Articles

Court Revives Taxpayer Suit Against Prison

By Katherine Galdos, Daily Journal Staff Writer, January 28, 2003

A state appeals court breathed new life Monday into a suit claiming that a San Diego area prison cheated not only inmates but California taxpayers by letting a clothing manufacturer hire prison laborers at below-market rates.

The taxpayer complaint, brought by Christina Vasquez, international vice president of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial & Textile Employees, claimed that the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility near San Diego had illegally allowed clothing manufacturer CTM Blues Inc. to underpay prison workers.

The inmates were hired under a program established by Proposition 139, passed in 1990, which requires prisons to set inmate wages close to the going rate for all workers in the area. Some 80 percent of the inmates salaries were to go toward victims' restitution or prison room and board. CMT Blues signed up to work with the Donovan facility under the program in 1996.

A judgment of $840,000 was entered against CMT Blues in a class action brought by prisoner employees, who claimed they were paid nothing for 60 days, then only minimum wage after that. But San Diego County Superior Court Judge William C. Pate balked at letting Vasquez go forward against the state and the program administrator.

The 4th District Court of Appeal disagreed. Vasquez v. State, 2003 DJDAR 1015 (Cal.App.4th Dist Jan. 27, 2003).

"Contrary to the State's view, it cannot sit idly by while CMT Blues violates Proposition 139 and the express terms of the joint venture agreement," Justice Judith McConnell wrote.

"It is established that an action lies. . . not only to enjoin wasteful expenditures, but also to enforce the government's duty to collect funds due the state," she wrote.

Robert Berke, counsel for the plaintiffs, said he was looking forward to going back to court to ask that the prison require the company to pay the prevailing wage.

"What was upsetting in this case was the Department of Corrections . . . violated the law by not enforcing it, and it took the taxpayers to file suit to make sure that the laws were complied with," Berke said.

Berke said that CMT Blues' labor deal harmed not only prisoners but other employers and union members by taking away work that otherwise would have been compensated for at market rates.

"The law-abiding lawful worker gets disadvantaged," Berke said.

Thomas Clifton, counsel for the state, declined to comment because he had not yet seen the opinion.

The joint-venture program employs 248 prisoners in 10 prisons. Twelve participating employers paid $18 million in wages between July 1991 and the end of 2002. Participating companies include Kaiser Steel Resources, an electronics company and an alfalfa producer. CMT Blues continues to participate in the program at Donovan, employing 45 inmates.