SECTIONS 2780-2792 - California Statutes

PENAL CODE

SECTION 2780-2792

2780. Any department, division, bureau, commission or other agency
of the State of California or the Federal Government may use or cause
to be used convicts confined in the state prisons to perform work
necessary and proper to be done by them at permanent, temporary, and
mobile camps to be established under this article. The director may
enter into contracts for the purposes of this article.

2780.1. Money received from the rendering of services under the
prison camp work program shall be paid to the Treasurer monthly and
shall be credited to the support appropriation of the prison
rendering such services, in augmentation thereof. The appropriation
to be credited shall be the appropriation current at the time of
rendering the services. Nothing in this section shall apply to prison
road camps established under Article 4 (commencing with Section
2760) of this chapter, except that, by mutual agreement between the
Department of Transportation and the Department of Corrections,
subject to the approval of the Department of Finance, such prison
road camps may be administered, instead, under the provisions of this
article.

2780.5. The Director of Corrections may, during declared fire
emergencies, allow the Director of the Department of Forestry and
Fire Protection to use prisoners for fire suppression efforts outside
of the boundaries of California, not to exceed a distance in excess
of 25 miles from the California border, along the borders of Oregon,
Nevada, or Arizona.

2781. The Director of Corrections shall determine which prisoners
shall be eligible for employment under Section 2780, and shall
establish and modify lists of prisoners eligible for such employment.
Upon the requisition of an agency mentioned in Section 2780, the
Director of Corrections may send to the place and at the time
designated the number of prisoners requisitioned or such number
thereof as have been determined to be eligible for such employment
and are available.
The director may return to prison any prisoner transferred to camp
pursuant to this section, when the need for such prisoner's labor
has ceased or when the prisoner is guilty of any violation of the
rules and regulations of the prison or camp.

2782. The director may fix a daily rate to be expended for such
convict labor, and when so fixed, the agency shall monthly set aside
funds to the director to pay for such labor, and where no funds are
available from the agency the director may set aside the department's
own funds to pay for such labor. The director, by regulation, may
authorize any or all deductions to be made from the pay due convicts
as provided for convicts at road camps under Section 2762. The
director, by regulation, may also fix the maximum amount, over and
above all deductions, that a convict may receive.

2785. Whenever prisoners are paid for their labor under this
article and a prisoner wilfully violates the terms of his employment
or the rules of the camp or the Department of Corrections the
Director of Corrections may in his discretion determine what portion
of all moneys earned by the prisoner shall be forfeited by the
prisoner and such forfeiture shall be deposited in the State Treasury
in the fund known as the Inmate Welfare Fund of the Department of
Corrections.

2786. All money in the Inmate Welfare Fund of the Department of
Corrections is hereby appropriated for educational and recreational
purposes at the various prison camps established under this article
and shall be expended by the director upon warrants drawn upon the
State Treasury by the State Controller after approval of the claims
by the California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board.

2786.1. The secretary shall make weight training equipment
available to inmates assigned to fire suppression efforts pursuant to
this article. The weight training equipment shall be used in
accordance with the provisions of Section 5010.

2787. The agency providing work for convicts under this article
shall designate and supervise all work done under the provisions of
this article. The agency shall provide, erect and maintain the
necessary camps, except that where no funds are available to the
agency, the director may provide, erect and maintain the necessary
camps. The director shall supervise and manage the necessary camps
and commissariat.

2788. The director shall have full jurisdiction at all times over
the discipline and control of the convicts performing work under this
article.

2790. Any person, who, without authority, interferes with or in any
way interrupts the work of any convict used pursuant to this article
and any person not authorized by law, who gives or attempts to give
to any state prison convict so employed any controlled substances, or
any intoxicating liquors of any kind whatever, or firearms, weapons
or explosives of any kind is guilty of a felony and upon conviction
thereof shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison and
shall be disqualified from holding any state office or position in
the employ of this state. Any person who interferes with the
discipline or good conduct of any convict used pursuant to this
article, while such convict is in such camps is guilty of a
misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by
imprisonment in the county jail for a term not more than six months,
or by a fine of not more than four hundred dollars ($400), or by both
such fine and imprisonment. Any peace officer or any officer or
guard of any state prison or any superintendent of such work, having
in charge the convicts used in such camps, may arrest without a
warrant any person violating any provisions of this article.

2791. This article is not intended to restore, in whole or in part,
the civil rights of any convict used hereunder, and such article
shall not be so construed.

2792. Camps may be established under this article for the
employment of paroled prisoners.