Bill Text: NY S08851 | 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 2-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-07-29 - REFERRED TO RULES [S08851 Detail]
Download: New_York-2019-S08851-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 8851 IN SENATE July 29, 2020 ___________ Introduced by Sen. MYRIE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules 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