Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

299 Minn. 112

216 N.W.2d 264

Wilkinson v. McManus

Supreme Court of Minnesota

Decided March 29, 1974

Supreme Court of Minnesota · decided 1974-03-29

<bold>Prisons — prison labor program — constitutionality — amount</bold> <bold>of compensation</bold>.

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently March 1976

2 federal appellate · 1 state decisions

Relies on Red Ball Motor Freight, Inc. v. Shannon · Desist v. United States · Maurice Sigler v. Vincent R. Lowrie

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1974-03-29

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Per Curiam.

¶1 Petitioner, who is incarcerated at the state prison, appeals from the district court’s order denying his petition for either a writ of habeas corpus or an injunction. His petition challenged the constitutionality of the Minnesota prison labor program, under which a prisoner receives a small amount of compensation for each day that he works plus a certain amount of time off from his sentence for each month that he works at his prison job “with diligence and fidelity” and otherwise conducts himself properly. See, Minn. St. 243.18 and 243.23. As we interpret it, the petition was addressed to the low-pay issue. However, petitioner’s pro se appeal brief suggests that he also intended to challenge the constitutionality, specifically under U. S. Const. Amend. XIII, of requiring prisoners to work in general.

¶2 We believe that there is no merit to either of these contentions. With respect to the claim that requiring prisoners to work is unconstitutional in that it violates the Thirteenth Amendment, we need only say that the Thirteenth Amendment by express pro *113 vision permits involuntary servitude “as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” And, see, Draper v. Rhay, 315 F. 2d 193 (9 Cir.), certiorari denied, 375 U. S. 915, 84 S. Ct. 214, 11 L. ed. 2d 153 (1963). With respect to the issue of compensation, we refer petitioner to Sigler v. Lowrie, 404 F. 2d 659 (8 Cir. 1968), certiorari denied, 395 U. S. 940, 89 S. Ct. 2010, 23 L. ed. 2d 456 (1969), holding that as a general rule prisoners have no constitutional right to be paid anything for their prison labor, a holding with which we are in accord.

¶3 Affirmed.

/299/minn/112 · .json · Public domain