Senate Bill S2345

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S2345                 Revised 4/13/23

SPONSOR: MYRIE
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the correction law, in relation to enacting "the prison
minimum wage act"

 
PURPOSE:

To end the last vestiges of slavery and embrace the spirit and the prom-
ise of the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution by
providing a minimum wage of $3.00 an hour to inmates.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 provides the title of the bill, "Prison Minimum Wage Act."

Section 2 amends subdivision 3 of section 170 of the correction law, as
added by chapter 256 of the law of 2010 which provides that any inmate
who volunteers to perform work for a nonprofit organization shall be
paid a minimum wage of three dollars per hour. This subdivision also
              

authorizes the state department of corrections and community supervision
to charge the nonprofit organization a reasonable hourly rate for meals
and housing of prisoners if applicable.

Section 3 amends section 171 of the correction law by adding a new
subdivision 3 which requires that an inmate be paid a minimum wage of
three dollars per hour for any labor performed.

Section 4 amends subdivision 7 of section 177 of the correction law, as
renumbered by chapter 256 of the laws of 2010, and renumbered subdivi-
sion 8 and added a new subdivision 7 which requires that an inmate be
paid a minimum wage of three dollars per hour for any labor performed.

Section 5 amends section 178 of the correction law as added by chapter
476 of the laws of 1970 which requires that any inmate who is employed
under a work release program or a residential treatment facility program
be paid a minimum wage of three dollars per hour.

Section 6 amends section 184 of the correction law by adding a new
subdivision 3 which requires that an inmate be paid a minimum wage of
three dollars per hour who performs work as it is related to the manu-
facturing and preparing of any article or material at the direction of
the department of corrections and community supervision.

Section 7 amends section 186 of the correction law by adding a new
subdivision 5 which requires that an inmate be paid a minimum wage of
three dollars per hour for any service performed.

Section 8 amends section 187 of the correction law by adding a new
subdivision 5 which requires that no inmate be compensated an amount
that is less than three dollars an hour for work performed or work for
which a wage is paid. This subdivision also states that "work for which
a wage is paid" includes any task assigned to an inmate for which a wage
would have been due except for his or her status as an inmate.

Section 9 provides for the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

A study from the Prison Policy Institute found that inmates in New York
State are amongst the lowest paid incarcerated people nationwide. On
average, an inmate in New York State makes approximately $0.62 an hour,
with some being paid as little as $0.10 per hour or $3.00 per week. This
is far behind states like Nevada, Alaska, Maine, and Kansas where
inmates are afforded the opportunity to make $3.00 an hour.

Inmates are assigned an array of duties, from custodial and food
services within a correctional facility to working at the Division of
Correctional Industries, otherwise known as Corcraft, an entity within
the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) where
inmates manufacture license plates, janitorial supplies, and office
furniture, amongst other things. A 2014 DOCCS report found that Corcraft
employed approximately 2,100 prisoners in 14 facilities. Inmates who
work at Corcraft are paid as low as $0.16 an hour and on average make
$0.65 an hour. By law, Corcraft is exempt from participating in the
competitive bid process and local governments are obligated to purchase
commodities from Corcraft.As such, Corcraft has a monopoly over the
municipal institution market.  Because of the work provided by inmates,
Corcraft generates approximately $50 million in sales per year, with
only a fraction of that figure being provided to prisoners. According to
DOCCS, as of January 1, 2017 there were approximately 51,000 under their
custody and a 2013 study by the New York City Independent Budget Office
found that New York City housed over 12,000 inmates. They cannot form
unions, do not have a right to workers' compensation if they are injured
on the job, and are required to participate in programs as assigned
which, if they refuse, could lead them to face disciplinary measures
such as solitary confinement and loss of good-time credits.

The 2017 Pulitzer Prize winner in History, Heather Ann Thompson
described forced prison labor as an "institutional descendant of slav-
ery" and the associate director of the Human Rights Defense Center, a
prisoners' rights advocacy group, defined prison labor as prison slave
labor. Forced prison labor can be traced back to Black Codes, where
Southern states enacted the racist convict-lease system following the
Civil War which allowed former slaves to be rented back to their former
masters. Even the courts endorsed the practice as in 1871 the Supreme
Court of Virginia referred to prisoners as "slaves of the state."

New York State must do better. Our prison system should not be one which
is focused on punishment; rather, it should be dedicated to rehabili-
tation. The overwhelming majority of inmates are released after they
have paid their debt to society. By providing inmates a minimum wage of
$3.00, it will afford them the opportunity to have earnings when they
are released, allowing them the ability to better re-integrate into
society, potentially reducing the recidivism rate, making New York a
safer place, and demonstrating that New York State will no longer be a
participant in act which attributes its origins to our greatest sin.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

S287 of 2021-22: Referred to Crime Victims, Crime and Correction.

S3138 of 2019-20: Referred to Crime Victims, Crime and Correction.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after it
shall have become a law. Effective immediately the addition, amendment
and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation
of this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and
completed on or before such date.