ARTICLE 5. Employment in Public Parks, Forests, etc. [2780. - 2792.]

Cal. Penal Code - PEN 5.
in effect

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 2780. Section 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.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 2780.1. Section 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.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 2780.5. Section 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.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 2780.6. Section 2780.6.

(a) Notwithstanding paragraph (9) of subdivision (a) of Section 3370 of the Labor Code, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, shall, pursuant to subdivision (b), pay a death benefit in an amount calculated pursuant to subdivision (c) for the death of any state prison incarcerated individual hand crew member assigned to the California Conservation Camp program. (b) The death benefit shall be paid within 60 days of the death of an incarcerated individual hand crew member to the beneficiary designated by the crew member to receive the death benefit if the crew member dies during any of the following circumstances: (1) During, and resulting from, the performance of their duties on an active deployment. (2) During, and resulting from, the performance of their duties completing firefighter Conservation Camp training exercises. (3) While physically or mentally incapacitated due to and resulting from their performance of their duties as described in paragraph (1) or (2). (c) The death benefit shall be the sum of the following amounts: (1) Fifty thousand dollars ($50,000). (2) An amount equal to 50 percent of the annual compensation earned by the deceased crew member during the 12 months immediately preceding the death of the crew member.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 2781. Section 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.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 2782. Section 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.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 2785. Section 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.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 2786. Section 2786.

All money received pursuant to this article in the Inmate Welfare Fund of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is hereby appropriated for educational, recreational, and other purposes described in Section 5006 at the various prison camps established under this article and shall be expended by the secretary upon warrants drawn upon the State Treasury by the Controller after approval of the claims by the Department of General Services. It is the intent of the Legislature that moneys in this fund only be expended on services other than those that the department is required to provide to inmates.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 2786.1. Section 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.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 2786.5. Section 2786.5.

(a) (1) The Legislature finds and declares both of the following: (A) The Youth Offender Program Camp Pilot Program was launched by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in August 2023 at Growlersburg Conservation Camp #33 in Georgetown as a pilot program to temporarily allow incarcerated youth between 18 and 25 years of age, who have a Level III classification score or a Violent Administrative Determinant, the ability to participate in the conservation camp program on a case-by-case basis. (B) The pilot program showed great promise, and the department expanded the pilot program to Pine Grove Youth Conservation Camp #12 in August 2024. (2) It is the intent of the Legislature to make the Youth Offender Program Camp Pilot Program within the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation permanent. (b) (1) The Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shall make permanent the Youth Offender Program Camp Pilot Program, and may, at the discretion of the secretary, expand the program to include some or all of California Conservation Camps. (2) For purposes of this subdivision, “California Conservation Camps” has the same meaning as in Section 4952 of the Public Resources Code.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 2787. Section 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.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 2788. Section 2788.

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

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 2790. Section 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 pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 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 that 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 that fine and imprisonment. Any peace officer or any officer or guard of any state prison or any superintendent of that work, having in charge the convicts used in those camps, may arrest without a warrant any person violating any provisions of this article.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 2791. Section 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.
Source: CA Legislative Counsel Bulk DataURL: https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/pubinfo_2025.zipFetched: 6/27/2026

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