30:4-98. Powers of state board

The State Board shall have power to:

a. Assign to each institution the industries, occupations, vocations and labor to be operated or performed by the inmates thereof, but no new industry shall be established in any institution nor shall any existing industry be enlarged materially except by consent of the State House Commission;

b. Establish for each institution and for each industry, occupation and vocation, hours and days of labor, determine the rate of compensation to be paid therein and pay or cause the same to be paid to the worker or his dependents, or apportion the pay between the worker and his dependents;

c. Procure and install in each institution the machinery and equipment and furnish the tools, supplies, raw materials, seeds, fertilizers and articles necessary for the operation of the assigned industries and the performance of the assigned occupations and vocations with relation to the determined standards of quality and quantity;

d. Establish standards of machinery, equipment, tools, supplies, raw materials; adopt in conjunction with the Division of Purchase and Property in the State Department of Taxation and Finance, styles, patterns, designs and qualities of finished products; determine the cost of production and fix the selling price thereof;

e. Establish a uniform system of accounting and cost of production for materials and labor including maintenance and wage payments;

f. Prepare and issue a catalogue containing a description and price list of all articles manufactured or produced by all the institutions within its jurisdiction;

g. Assign any number of the inmates of any institution to the performance of labor outside the usual limits of the institution of which they are inmates, of whatever character and wherever, within the boundaries of this State, may be determined by the State Board; provided, such labor shall only be employed in enterprises of a public nature or connected with the public welfare or in such work in such places as may be necessary to meet any emergency arising from scarcity of labor on farms. Such labor shall be performed under the direct supervision of an officer or officers authorized by the commissioner;

h. Pay from the working capital account or any other funds at its disposal, for the transportation of such laborers to and from the place of detention to the place of assigned labor, and for the proper clothing, maintenance, guarding and medical attention of the assigned laborers;

i. Determine the amount to be charged for the labor of such inmates as may be assigned to any work for any other department or branch of the State Government not included within the jurisdiction of this department, and contract and agree with the chief executive officer thereof as to the performance of the work, the rate to be paid therefor, the number of inmates to be assigned and such other details as may be necessary and proper;

j. Determine and apportion between the institution furnishing the labor and the institution receiving the benefit thereof the cost of such labor and expenses incident thereto, when such labor is assigned from one institution to another within the jurisdiction of the department;

k. Detail keepers, guards or attendants from the employees of any institution as guards for the inmates thereof when out of the institution on assigned labor or to hire additional keepers or guards as may be necessary, paying therefor from the working capital account of such institution and including the cost thereof in the calculated cost of such labor;

l. Perform as an independent contractor, with the labor of the inmates of the institutions within its jurisdiction, any public work, either upon the lands of the State or elsewhere; and

m. Employ the inmates of any or all of the institutions within its jurisdiction upon any work for the United States Government or any department thereof, upon such terms as the State Board may determine.

Amended by L.1948, c. 291, s. 1; L.1948, c. 398, p. 1596, s. 1.