The Legal Aid Society is crying foul over an exploitative policy in which incarcerated New Yorkers are denied the very same masks they are being required to produce, as reported by Mother Jones. Instead, these people must rely instead on prison-issued handkerchiefs – which LAS clients across the state have complained are insufficient and too small to tie around their faces.

“To have incarcerated New Yorkers making PPE for us on the outside, while depriving them of those very same masks, is beyond draconian,” said David Loftis, a lead attorney at The Legal Aid Society.

Corcraft, the state-owned business manufacturing the masks, pays incarcerated New Yorkers a starting wage of just 16 cents an hour. While these people earn pennies per hour, the state generates $30-$40 million in revenue annually from Corcraft sales to other state agencies, according to public records obtained this year by criminal justice reform groups.