Dan Clark: One thing we're not expecting as part of the state budget this year is higher worker wages for people in prison who say their current pay is not enough. That's prompted a bigger question about what they do and why. Alexis Young has that story.
Alexis Young: During the thick of the pandemic local governments in New York State were struggling to get their hands on hand sanitizer. In March 2020, regular bottles of Purell hand sanitizer had skyrocketed on Amazon and eBay, and after requesting an end to what then Governor Cuomo called price gouging, he found a $6.10 cent per gallon solution, prison labor.
The 56th governor of New York State, had incarcerated individuals produce New York State clean hand sanitizer, 11 million bottles of it, leaving an excess of 700,000 gallons.
Incarcerated individuals make an hourly wage between ten and $0.65 in New York prisons. Some activists and legislators refer to the system as forced prison labor or slave labor.
Zellnor Myrie: If you spoke to any everyday New Yorker and you ask them whether slavery still exists today, they would say, of course not… of course not.
We are hundreds of years past the end of slavery, but we today in this New York Constitution still have slavery embedded in our laws.
AY: Not all New York lawmakers agree. Ranker for the Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Senate Committee Senator Patrick Gallivan from the 60th District near Rochester opposes the bill and doesn't recognize prison labor as forced or...
Judge found FBI affidavit flawed but not enough to return ballots Probe part of Trump administration effort to reexamine 2020 loss Fulton County argued FBI relied on discredited evidence WASHING...