DENVER — It’s been four years in the making, but a judge has finally made a ruling in a class action lawsuit against the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) and Governor Jared Polis, finding they violated the state’s constitution by forcing prisoners to work.

The order came down Friday from Denver District Court Judge Sarah Wallace.

She agreed with the plaintiffs, ruling the state and CDOC are violating the Colorado Constitution.

It goes back to the 13th Amendment which has a clause that states, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.”

That clause has previously allowed forced labor in prisons, but in 2018, Colorado voters amended the state’s constitution making slavery, or forced labor, illegal with no exceptions.

When Colorado passed Amendment A, it became the first state in modern history to end the 13th Amendment’s exception clause. Rhode Island banned slavery without exception in 1842. At least five other states have made the same ban including Utah, Nebraska, Alabama, Oregon and Vermont.