All New York state correctional facilities rely on and mandate the labor of incarcerated people in some capacity. The majority of incarcerated people work for the facility, performing jobs such as maintenance, laundry, or groundskeeping.

A smaller number of incarcerated people work for Corcraft. Corcraft is the “brand name” for the Division of Correctional Industries, an entity within the NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. It is through Corcraft that products are manufactured in NYS correctional facilities and distributed to consumers. Invisible to the general public, incarcerated labor is ever-present in New York’s economy.

This report will reveal how Corcraft incentivizes the State to incarcerate people in order to offset the costs of their own incarceration, as well as to sustain the cheap production of goods and services for other government entities. Incarcerated workers are often forced to engage in dangerous work, and do not derive benefits proportional to those that the State derives from their labor.

Full report coming soon.