SENATE BILL No. 1465

 

 

August 24, 2010, Introduced by Senator VAN WOERKOM and referred to the Committee on Agriculture and Bioeconomy.

 

 

 

     A bill to amend 1968 PA 15, entitled

 

"Correctional industries act,"

 

by amending section 6 (MCL 800.326), as amended by 2007 PA 102.

 

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:

 

     Sec. 6. (1) Correctional industries products may be sold,

 

exchanged, or purchased by any of the following:

 

     (a) An institution of this or any other state or political

 

subdivision of this or any other state, the federal government or

 

agencies of the federal government, a foreign government or

 

agencies of a foreign government, or a private vendor that operates

 

a correctional facility in this state.

 

     (b) Any organization that is a tax exempt organization under

 

section 501(c)(3) of the internal revenue code.

 

     (c) Any private business or individual, if the products are

 


cut and sewn textiles, but only if the same or a comparable in

 

style product is not manufactured by a private business in this

 

state.

 

     (d) A person who owns or operates a farm in this state and who

 

engages the labor of seasonal farmworkers, if the product is

 

prefabricated housing suitable for housing seasonal farmworkers.

 

     (2) An agricultural product that is produced on a correctional

 

farm may be utilized within the correctional institutions or within

 

a correctional facility in this state notwithstanding its operation

 

by a private vendor or sold to an institution, governmental agency,

 

or organization described in subsection (1) or sold for utilization

 

in the food production facilities of the department of corrections

 

notwithstanding the operation of those facilities by a private

 

vendor. An agricultural product that is not utilized or sold as

 

provided in this subsection shall be made available without charge

 

to nonprofit charitable organizations or to the family independence

 

agency for use in food banks, bulk food distributions, or similar

 

charitable food distribution programs. This subsection does not

 

apply to an agricultural product that is not in a form suitable for

 

use in the manner prescribed in this section, such as bulk grain,

 

live cattle, and hogs, which may be sold on the open market.

 

     (3) Except as provided in subsections subsection (4), and (5),

 

the labor of inmates shall not be sold, hired, leased, loaned,

 

contracted for, or otherwise used for private or corporate profit

 

or for any purpose other than the construction, maintenance, or

 

operation of public works, ways, or property as directed by the

 

governor. This act does not prohibit the sale at retail of articles

 


made by inmates for the personal benefit of themselves or their

 

dependents or the payment to inmates for personal services rendered

 

in the correctional institutions, subject to regulations approved

 

by the department of corrections, or the use of inmate labor upon

 

agricultural land that has been rented or leased by the department

 

of corrections upon a sharecropping or other basis.

 

     (4) If more than 80% of a particular product sold in the

 

United States is manufactured outside the United States and none of

 

that product is manufactured in this state, or if a particular

 

service is not performed in this state, as determined by the

 

department of corrections in conjunction with the advisory council

 

for correctional industries, inmate labor may be used in the

 

manufacture of that product or the rendering of that service in a

 

private manufacturing or service enterprise established under

 

section 7a. A determination by the department of corrections under

 

this subsection shall be made at the time the individual or

 

business entity applies to the department for approval to produce

 

that product or render that service pursuant to section 7a.