§ 170. Contracts prohibited. 1. The commissioner shall not, nor shall any other authority whatsoever, make any contract by which the labor or time of any inmate in any state or local correctional facility in this state, or the product or profit of his work, shall be contracted, let, farmed out, given or sold to any person, firm, association or corporation; except that the inmates in said correctional institutions may work for, and the products of their labor may be disposed of to, the state or any political subdivision thereof, any public institution owned or managed and controlled by the state, or any political subdivision thereof, provided that no inmate shall be employed or assigned to engage in any activity that involves obtaining access to, collecting or processing social security account numbers of other individuals.

2. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, it shall be lawful for an inmate of the department to work in an institution of the department in the manufacture and production of goods, including but not limited to, license plates, identification plates and insignia for vehicles, and for the department to sell or otherwise dispose of for profit such goods to the government of the United States or to any state of the United States, or political subdivision thereof, or any public corporation or eleemosynary association or corporation funded in whole or in part by any federal, state or local funds.

3. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an inmate may be permitted to leave the institution under guard to voluntarily perform work for a nonprofit organization. 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.