Just a few months ago, California voters decisively rejected Proposition 6. The measure, put before the voters by the state Legislature, proposed removing involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime. That has not deterred Assemblymember Lori Wilson, D-Suisun City, from reintroducing the idea.

“We’re doing this again and going back because we felt like it was a moral obligation and a righteous thing to do,” said Wilson to CalMatters.

The title of Proposition 6 was quite clear: “Eliminates constitutional provision allowing involuntary servitude for incarcerated persons. Legislative constitutional amendment”

The constitutional amendment sought to change the state constitution to read: “Slavery and involuntary servitude are prohibited.”

The language currently in the state constitution reads, “Slavery is prohibited. Involuntary servitude is prohibited except to punish crime.”

This time, though, Wilson thinks the trick is to drop the reference completely to involuntary servitude.

Her newly proposed Assembly Constitutional Amendment 6 would instead replace the current language with, “Slavery in all forms is prohibited.”

Clever-ish.

This editorial board doesn’t deny the good intentions of Wilson and proponents of removing the authority from prison officials to require prisoners to work while incarcerated.

But the idea that there’s no difference between slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime is something of an insult.

Likewise, the idea that voters didn’t understand what they were voting on when they decided that it’s reasonable to require prisoners to work while imprisoned is yet another insult.

There is nothing stopping the California Legislature from ensuring a reasonable balance between prison labor and rehabilitative programming. Nor is there anything stopping the California Legislature from improving prison conditions.

As this editorial board wrote in its recommendation against Proposition 6, “All this misdirection about one small facet of incarceration — being told to work, like the rest of us — does nothing to help create the real reforms that our penal system needs, very much including expanding educational opportunities and rehabilitation and, yes, job training for prisoners so that they don’t become part of the revolving door that will soon send them back to prison because they have not been prepared for release.”

Add in the still standing concerns that if Wilson gets what she wants, there’s a real possibility that, as CalMatters reported, “federal employment laws, including those on wages and benefits, might begin to cover inmates who are required to work.”

Rather than waste time on this, Wilson and her colleagues should improve prison conditions, ensure prisoners are actually being rehabilitated and prioritize crime prevention in the state budget. You know, so people -aren’t committing felonies against others and ending up in prison due to their own harmful actions.