Bill Text: NY A10919 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced


Bill Title: Prohibits certain public entities from receiving net earnings from inmate labor; prohibits compelling inmates to provide labor.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-08-28 - reference changed to correction [A10919 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-A10919-Introduced.html



                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          10919

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                     August 17, 2020
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by COMMITTEE ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. Epstein) --
          read once and referred  to  the  Committee  on  Consumer  Affairs  and
          Protection

        AN ACT to amend the correction law, in relation to inmate labor

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Subdivision 3 of section 170  of  the  correction  law,  as
     2  added  by chapter 256 of the laws of 2010, is amended and a new subdivi-
     3  sion 4 is added to read as follows:
     4    3. Notwithstanding any other  provision  of  law,  an  inmate  may  be
     5  permitted  to  leave  the institution under guard to voluntarily perform
     6  work for a nonprofit organization. As used in  this  section,  the  term
     7  "nonprofit  organization" means an organization operated exclusively for
     8  religious, charitable, or educational purposes, no part of the net earn-
     9  ings of which inures to the benefit  of  the  state  of  New  York,  the
    10  government of the United States or to any state of the United States, or
    11  political  subdivision  thereof,  any public corporation or eleemosynary
    12  association or corporation funded in whole or in part  by  any  federal,
    13  state or local funds or any private shareholder or individual.
    14    4.  (a)  No  inmate shall be compelled to provide labor against his or
    15  her will by actual force,  threats  of  force,  threats  of  punishment,
    16  threats  of legal coercion or by any scheme, plan or pattern intended to
    17  cause the inmate to believe that, if the inmate  did  not  provide  such
    18  labor, that inmate or another person would suffer physical, emotional or
    19  mental harm.
    20    (b)  Any inmate alleging a violation of this subdivision shall, within
    21  ten years after the acts  alleged  to  have  violated  this  subdivision
    22  occurred,  have  a cause of action in any court of appropriate jurisdic-
    23  tion for damages, including punitive damages, and for injunctive  relief
    24  and  such other remedies as may be appropriate together with all reason-
    25  able attorney's fees and costs.
    26    § 2. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day  after  it  shall
    27  have become a law.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD17022-01-0
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