Booker Introduces Package of Bills to End Unfair and Abusive Labor Practices in U.S. Correctional Facilities

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced a package of bills geared towards ending unfair and abusive labor practices in our country’s correctional facilities: the Combating Workplace Discrimination in Correctional Facilities Act, the Correctional Facilities Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Ensuring Work Opportunities in Correctional Facilities Act, and the Fair Wages for Incarcerated Workers Act.

“The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery ‘except as a punishment for crime,’ but this language has enabled and expanded the exploitation of incarcerated people in our country’s prisons,” said Senator Booker. “Of the more than 1.2 million people incarcerated in state and federal prisons, 65% of them work. Because fair labor standards are virtually nonexistent in U.S. prisons, incarcerated people are often compelled to work in abusive and unsafe conditions. They work for little to no pay, on average making between 13 and 52 cents per hour in most jobs. And if they refuse to work, they face retaliation by correctional officers and have limited avenues under federal law to fight for their civil rights. The current state of prison labor in America is inhumane and unacceptable. I’m proud to introduce these bills that would strengthen civil rights protections, improve workplace safety, enhance work opportunities, guarantee wages, and finally end these unfair, abusive labor practices for incarcerated people.”

Fair Wages for Incarcerated Workers Act

This legislation would ensure incarcerated workers are paid the federal minimum wage for their work. It also eliminates certain wage deductions while ensuring incarcerated people can still fulfill important legal and financial obligations.

The bill is endorsed by: American Civil Liberties Union, Brennan Center for Justice, Center for Law and Social Policy, Economic Policy Institute, Human Rights Watch, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, National Employment Law Project, Safer Foundation, Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ, Tzedek Association, and Vera Institute of Justice.

The full text of the bill can be found here.

Correctional Facilities Occupational Safety and Health Act

This legislation would seek to ensure safer workplaces for workers incarcerated in federal, state, and local correctional facilities. This legislation would:

• Amend the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act to explicitly include correctional facilities operated by state and local governments as employers and incarcerated workers as employees
• Require states with state occupational safety and health plans to include incarcerated workers and require correctional facilities to issue regular reports to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) on labor conditions and any potential violations of workplace safety laws
• Require the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to apply the occupational safety and health programs for BOP employees to incarcerated workers and require annual reports
• Create a grant program for state and local governments to amend their occupational health and safety plans to cover incarcerated workers and to support enforcement

The bill is endorsed by: American Civil Liberties Union, Brennan Center for Justice, Center for Law and Social Policy, Economic Policy Institute, Human Rights Watch, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, National Employment Law Project, Safer Foundation, Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ, Tzedek Association, and Vera Institute of Justice.

The full text of the bill can be found here.

Ensuring Work Opportunities in Correctional Facilities Act

This legislation would advance job and educational opportunities in prisons to prepare returning citizens to successfully reenter society and to reduce recidivism. This legislation would:

• Authorize additional funding for the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Occupational Education Programs (OEP), which offers job training to incarcerated individuals, providing $210,000,000 in total for fiscal years 2024 through 2029 for occupational training and education programs within BOP
• Increase the number of programs authorized through the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP) from 50 to 100, which would allow for more incarcerated workers to gain professional, private-sector job experience while also receiving prevailing wages for their work
• Double the annual funding for two First Step Act-authorized state and local grant programs and extend grant funding from 2024 through 2029 to invest in academic programs, career training for reentry, and vocational programs

The bill is endorsed by: American Civil Liberties Union, Brennan Center for Justice, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, National Employment Law Project, Safer Foundation, Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ, Tzedek Association, and Vera Institute of Justice.

The full text of the bill can be found here.

Combating Workplace Discrimination in Correctional Facilities Act

This legislation would strengthen protections for incarcerated workers against civil rights violations and discrimination. Specifically, it would:

• Prohibit requiring people incarcerated in Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facilities to work
• Amend the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 to end the requirement that incarcerated individuals exhaust all available administrative remedies before being able to sue a correctional facility or officer under federal law to assert their civil rights
• Prohibit retaliation against an incarcerated person by any officer of a correctional facility for refusal to work
• Remove “refusing to work” from the list of BOP inmate behaviors justifying sanctions, including disciplinary segregation, monetary fines, loss of earned time, and delayed parole
• Grant the protections of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to incarcerated workers to prohibit employment-related discrimination against workers based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin
• Require correctional facilities to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act, including notice provisions, policy implementation and training, and annual reports to the Attorney General

The bill is endorsed by: American Civil Liberties Union, Brennan Center for Justice, Economic Policy Institute, Human Rights Watch, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, National Employment Law Project, Safer Foundation, Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ, and Vera Institute of Justice.

The full text of the bill can be found here.