Las Vegas lawsuit takes aim at inmate ‘slave labor’

David Anthony Gonzalez is paid $3 a day working for the Nevada Forestry Division, sprucing up state roadsides and using heavy equipment like chainsaws to clear vegetation.

At any given point, he could be called to fight a fire.

As a Nevada prisoner nearing his freedom, Gonzalez, who earned his job through good behavior while locked up, is regularly at risk of injury, his lawyers said.

In a lawsuit filed this month in Las Vegas, the attorneys, Travis Barrick and Nathan Lawrence, said the rate Gonzalez and other inmates are paid — well below the state’s minimum wage of $8 per hour — is akin to using prisoners for slave labor, and they want that to change.

“There is something to be accounted for in the way inmates are treated and viewed,” Lawrence said. “Their incarceration is their punishment. They don’t then get to be treated as slaves because we don’t think they deserve better. That’s what we’re trying to address here. Regardless of incarceration, people deserve to be treated like people. There is something to be said for treating people with dignity, regardless of the circumstance.”

The lawsuit names Gov. Steve Sisolak, the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the forestry division.

A spokeswoman for the governor declined to comment on the litigation. Officials with the conservation department and forestry division could not be reached.

According to state law, wages paid to offenders is subject to administrative supervision, while the Nevada constitution states that “each employer shall pay a wage to each employee of not less than the hourly rate” of $8 per hour.

Gonzalez’s lawyers said the wage increase would not affect the state’s coffers. Instead the money could be transferred from the forestry division to the Nevada Department of Corrections.

Gonzalez and other inmates who work for state agencies outside the prison are “legally and constitutionally entitled to receive a wage not less than the applicable hourly wage,” the lawsuit stated.

In April, Gonzalez filed a grievance through the prison system, and it was denied “for a lack of standing,” according to the complaint.

Two months later, he petitioned the forestry division and that was denied after the fire warden argued that the agency was “free to set any wage for offenders participating in conservation camp programs.”

Gonzalez, an inmate Three Lakes Valley Conservation Camp in Indian Springs, was convicted of kidnapping in December 2014 for his role in an armed robbery, though he did not have a weapon, according to his lawyers and court records.

He could be released as early as the spring, and his lawyers argued that paying him a reasonable wage would help him better acclimate to freedom.

It could also motivate other prisoners to strive toward similar work.

“So if this comes about, it will have a ripple effect in the psyche of the prisoners, and it might increase competition for the camps,” Barrick said. “You have to look at how the incentives are aligned. We’re asking them to risk their lives for no money. So how’s that an incentive?”

Lawrence added: “These are people who have an opportunity to be reintroduced to society. We think there’s some obligation to make sure their imminent transition back into society is a smooth one, both for them and society as a whole.”

Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.