Denver judge rules Colorado Department of Corrections violates state constitution in prison labor program The Colorado Department of Corrections has been illegally requiring people in state prisons to work under the threat of solitary confinement and other punishments.

CBS covered the firm’s work in Mortis v. Colorado Department of Corrections, our client’s class action over prison labor. In 2018, more than two-thirds of Colorado voters approved Amendment A, which removed the clause letting the state constitution’s ban on slavery and involuntary servitude yield to punishment for a crime. Harold Mortis sued four years ago on behalf of thousands of people in Colorado prisons, arguing the state had carried on as if nothing had changed. In February 2026, after hearing from eleven witnesses, Denver District Judge Sarah Wallace ruled that the corrections department, its director, and Governor Jared Polis were violating the amendment by requiring people to work under threat of solitary confinement. She ordered the state to stop using segregation and isolation to punish refusals to work.

Read the full article: CBS News