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November 04, 2009

New York Voters Approve Prisoner Volunteer Proposal

Buried within this week’s election coverage is the news that New York State voters approved a proposal that allows prisoners to volunteer at nonprofit groups.

Technically, the proposal changes the state constitution so that the legislature can pass a bill to permit inmates in state and local correctional facilities to work with charities. Before, the state said prisoners cannot “be farmed out, contracted, given, or sold to any person, firm, association, or corporation,” including charities.

According to The New York Times, New Yorkers overwhelmingly supported the idea, with 67.6 percent voting for the proposition.

Proponents of the change said it would assist charity work and help rehabilitate convicts.

“It can be helpful in repaying society, rehabilitating them, and re-acclimating them to people in the world,” Assemblyman Jeffrion L. Aubry, a Democrat from Queens and chairman of the Assembly’s Correction Committee, told The Times.

However, some people have raised questions about which charities will benefit and whether they will offer political favors to do so.

“The parceling out of these favors establishes a new source for the favoritism and corruption that is already so prevalent in our political life,” writes Daan Zwick, a Rochester resident, in a letter to the editor of the Democrat and Chronicle newspaper.

— Ian Wilhelm

Wednesday November 4, 2009 | Permalink

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