Relates to inmate wages; provides that inmates shall be compensated at a base rate of $1.20 to $10 per day and shall be given biannual raises for adequate performance; and provides that inmates not participating in a work or program assignment due to age or frailty shall be paid $1.00 per day, adjusted every 5 years for cost of living.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8080
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
May 31, 2019
___________
Introduced by M. of A. PERRY -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Correction
AN ACT to amend the correction law, in relation to inmate wages
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 187 of the correction law is amended by adding a
2 new subdivision 5 to read as follows:
3 5. Inmates shall be compensated for all work and program assignments
4 at a base rate of compensation of one dollar twenty cents to ten dollars
5 per day and shall be given biannual raises for adequate performance in
6 such assignments. An inmate working in a manufacturing or industrial
7 assignment shall receive compensation of five to ten dollars per day for
8 the duration of the time such inmate works in such assignment and shall
9 revert to his or her previous rate of compensation once he or she is no
10 longer working in such assignment. Unless an inmate is leaving such
11 manufacturing or industrial assignment, his or her compensation for
12 performing his or her work or program assignment shall not be decreased
13 if he or she is transferred to a different facility or changes assign-
14 ments within a facility. The department shall review and adjust the base
15 rate of compensation of inmates every five years after the effective
16 date of this subdivision to adjust for cost of living increases. A cost
17 of living adjustment shall be made if the sum of the annual average
18 changes of the consumer price index for all urban consumers (CPI-U), as
19 published annually by the United States department of labor bureau of
20 labor statistics, is ten percent or greater upon review. Inmates who are
21 not able to work or participate in programs because of a medical,
22 mental, cognitive, developmental or physical impairment or condition or
23 who are over the age of sixty and not participating in a work or program
24 assignment because of age-related infirmity or frailty shall be paid one
25 dollar per day, adjusted every five years for cost of living.
26 § 2. This act shall take effect one year after it shall have become a
27 law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD08581-01-9
