Jackie Goldzweig Panitz, a paralegal casehandler with the Employment Law Unit at The Legal Aid Society, and Rosemary Rivera, Executive Director of Citizen Action NY have penned a joint op-ed for City Limits in support of The Freedom from Forced Labor Act and the Fairness and Opportunity for Incarcerated Workers Act.

The bill package would end forced labor in state prisons and ensure safe working conditions for incarcerated New Yorkers. It would also extend existing worker protections to those who would choose to work, guaranteeing fair wages. Governor Hochul has proposed changing the state’s constitution – not to end the forced labor exception – but to allow private companies to utilize the labor of incarcerated New Yorkers. Before that plan can even be considered these critical reforms must be put in place.

“Today, over 31,000 incarcerated New Yorkers are forced to work under the threat of punishment for as little as $0.10 per hour—before their wages are garnished to pay fines and fees,” they write. “The majority of these workers earn $0.33 or less per hour staffing hundreds of jobs, from running in-prison programming to groundskeeping and laundry—wages that can only be called ‘slave wages.’”

Read the full piece here.