A Louisiana Senate committee has voted to allow state prisoners to work on construction projects and do repair and renovation work at the Department of Corrections, administrative buildings, and the state Capitol complex.
House Bill 84, which is sponsored by Rep. Kenny Havard, R-St. Francisville, was voted 3-2 on May 8, 2018 after the bill was already passed the House on a 97-7 vote with almost no discussion. On May 16, 2018 The Senate voted 31-8 for House Bill 84 and the House voted 72-16 which will send the bill to the governor’s desk.
Prisoners would be paid anywhere between 4 and 70 cents per hour for the jobs or will be offered the ability to earn credit toward an earlier release. House Bill 84 has been getting a push from Rep. Kenny Havard because state inmates are already working on construction projects at its administrative buildings outside downtown Baton Rouge.
The legislation is meant to make it clear that inmates could do that type of construction project at the administrative building, according to Havard. Under the current law in Louisiana, with the governor’s permission, state inmates are allowed to do custodial work on state grounds and at state facilities.
It’s very common for inmates to clean, cook, and do gardening work at the state capitol, governor’s mansion, and several office buildings in Baton Rouge. It’s also legal for the governor to authorize prisoners to work on construction projects at state prisons and other correctional facilities where the prisoners live.
The inmates handle any type of construction project from remodeling and renovation to maintenance and repair work at the state prison or other facilities where they live though there’s a catch. If it’s a new project, the construction must not cost more than $200,000, including labor costs, for the inmates to be considered for the job.
House bill 817 is also being offered. This bill would require the prison system to track and report how inmate labor is used so that it’s easy to track the labor and what inmate wages look like.