BILL NUMBER: S7282

SPONSOR: MYRIE
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the civil rights law and the correction law, in relation
to ending slavery for incarcerated individuals in New York state

 
PURPOSE:

To formally abolish slavery, involuntary servitude, and forced labor in
New York State prisons, and, by doing so, would end one of the last
vestiges of slavery in our state.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 provides the title of the bill, "No Slavery in New York Act."

Section 2 amends Article 2 of the Civil Rights Law by adding a new
section to abolish slavery, involuntary servitude, and forced labor for
persons convicted of crimes.

              

Section 3 amends Article 7 of the correction law by adding a new section
to prohibit labor that is compelled, induced, or otherwise provided
against an incarcerated individual's will by force, threat of force, or
other adverse action.

Section 4 amends section 2 of the correction law by adding a new subdi-
vision, which defines "adverse action" to include the use of the insti-
tutional rules, regulations, and disciplinary process referenced in
Section 138 of the correction law.

Section 5 provides for a severability clause if any clause, sentence,
paragraph, subdivision, section, or part of this act shall be adjudged
to be invalid.

Section 6 provides for the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Slavery, involuntary servitude, and forced labor are not New York
values. However, while the New York State legislature passed legislation
in 1817 to free thousands of African American New Yorkers by 1827, New
York stands apart from most states in having no provision in modern-day
law barring the practice of slavery. Even after the passage of the 13th
Amendment, which banned chattel slavery except for those convicted of
crimes, New York remained silent. Unlike most states, New York's
present-day law has no provisions abolishing slavery.

Since 2018, eight states - Colorado, Nebraska, Utah, Alabama, Oregon,
Tennessee, Vermont, and Nevada - have voted to amend their state laws to
make the use of slavery and forced labor in prisons illegal. It is far
past time that New York recognizes an unqualified, formal prohibition on
slavery in the state law.

Further, the state must take steps to address the modern-day prison
labor system, which shamefully has its roots in New York State.
Pioneered more than 200 years ago at Auburn Prison in Auburn, New York,
the Auburn System was designed to force incarcerated New Yorkers to work
for no pay, producing goods and services that could then be sold for
profit. The goal was eventually to create a prison labor industry that
could offset the costs of incarceration.

Little has changed. People in New York carceral facilities are still
forced, sometimes in unsafe conditions or without proper protective
gear, to work under threat of punishment for as little as ten cents an
hour. Their forced labor produces goods and services like asbestos and
lead removal, furniture for SUNY and NYC schools, government office
furniture, eyeglasses, trash cans, license plates, as well as the
hundreds of prison maintenance jobs that keep the system running.
Forced labor, penny wages, and lack of legal protections have led numer-
ous scholars to conclude that the current labor conditions inside state
and federal prisons are a direct outgrowth of slavery.  It is incumbent
on us all to remove one of the last vestiges of slavery and reform the
current system, which violates human rights and is an affront to human
dignity.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

S225C of 2023-24: Passed Senate

S308 of 2021-22: Opinion referred to Judiciary

S6781 of 2019-20: Opinion referred to Judiciary

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

To be determined.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.