Food and labor

§ 500-d. Food and labor. (1) Prisoners detained for trial, and those
under sentence, shall be provided with a sufficient quantity of plain
but wholesome food, at the expense of the county; such foods shall be
purchased in the manner and subject to the regulations provided in
section four hundred eight of the county law; but prisoners detained for
trial may, at their own expense, and under the direction of the keeper,
be supplied with any other proper articles of food.

(2) Such keeper shall cause each prisoner committed to his jail for
imprisonment under sentence, to be constantly employed at hard labor
when practicable, during every day, except Sunday but the Sunday
exception shall not apply where a prisoner under sentence of
intermittent imprisonment serves less than the five preceding days in
the jail and the keeper has adopted an employment program designed
especially for intermittent imprisonment, and the board of supervisors
of the county, or judge of the county, may prescribe the kind of labor
at which such prisoner shall be employed; and the keeper shall account,
at least annually, with the board of supervisors of the county, for the
proceeds of such labor.

(3) Such keeper may, with the consent of the board of supervisors of
the county, or the county judge, from time to time, cause such of the
convicts under his or her charge as are capable of hard labor, to be
employed outside of the jail in the same, or in an adjoining county,
upon such terms as may be agreed upon between the keepers and the
officers, or persons, under whose direction such convicts shall be
placed, subject to such regulations as the board or judge may prescribe;
and the board of supervisors of the several counties are authorized to
employ convicts under sentence to confinement in the county jails, in
building and repairing penal institutions of the county and in building
and repairing the highways in their respective counties or in preparing
the materials for such highways for sale to and for the use of the
state, counties, towns, villages or cities, and in cutting wood and
performing other work which is commonly carried on at a prison camp, and
to make rules and regulations for their employment; and the said board
of supervisors are hereby authorized to cause money to be raised by
taxation for the purpose of furnishing materials and carrying this
provision into effect; and the courts of this state are hereby
authorized to sentence convicts committed to detention in the county
jails to such hard labor as may be provided for them by the boards of
supervisors. This section as amended shall not affect a county wholly
included within a city. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an
incarcerated individual may be permitted to leave the institution under
guard to voluntarily perform work for a nonprofit organization pursuant
to this subdivision. As used in this section, the term "nonprofit
organization" means an organization operated exclusively for religious,
charitable, or educational purposes, no part of the net earnings of
which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.