California lawmakers agreed to put Proposition 6 on the ballot at the urging of criminal justice advocates. Since 2018, at least a half-dozen states — including Alabama, Colorado, Nebraska, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah and Vermont — have approved similar measures.

Californians voted down Proposition 6, a ballot measure that eliminates the state’s constitutional provision that allows involuntary servitude for incarcerated workers. The measure would not have ended the practice of incarcerated people working for little to no pay, but it would have banned California prisons from requiring that they do so.

The measure would have amended the state’s constitution to repeal language that allows involuntary servitude as a form of criminal punishment.