(a) The Department may establish compulsory programs of employment, work experience and training for all physically able inmates. To the maximum extent practical, these programs shall approximate normal conditions of employment in free agriculture, industry and business, with respect to equipment, management practices and general procedures.
(b) The products of inmate labor and services may be sold and marketed to tax-supported departments and institutions and agencies of the State and its governmental subdivisions and such other employers or entities within or outside of the State, as the Department shall determine. The Department may make contractual arrangements for the use of inmate labor by other tax-supported units of government responsible for the conservation of natural resources or other public works. The Department may also assign inmates to community work projects including, but not limited to, litter control along state highways and on state beaches and trash removal from state facilities, as provided in subsection (c) of this section.
(c) Before entering into an agreement with any other state department seeking prisoner-workers in accordance with this section, the Department shall have established a pilot litter-control program in each of the 3 counties with the cooperation of the Department of Transportation. The Department of Transportation shall advise the Department as to the kinds of equipment and the costs thereof that will be required and will act at all times as the consultant to the Department in this program.
(d) Inmates shall be compensated or awarded additional good time credits, at the discretion of and at rates fixed by the Department, for labor performed, including institutional maintenance.
(e) In the event that an inmate shall labor for more than 40 hours in 1 week, said inmate shall be compensated at 11/2 times the regular hourly rates paid to said inmates for such work time the inmate has labored in excess of 40 hours in 1 week.
(f) The Department shall cause to be placed into an account, payable to each inmate upon the inmate's discharge, income from the inmate's employment and any other income or benefits, accruing to or payable to, and for the benefit of said inmate, including but not limited to any worker's compensation or Social Security benefits. From the account of each inmate, the Department shall deduct, in order of the priority set forth herein, the following sums:
(1) Support payments for dependents of the inmate who are receiving public assistance during the period of incarceration, or to whom the inmate is under a court ordered obligation to provide support and restitution as may have been assessed against said inmate pursuant to court order;
(2) Court costs, fines, and such other items as may be assessed against said inmate pursuant to court order; and
(3) A proportionate share of the costs of incarceration of inmates in the facility in which said inmate is housed including but not limited to room, board, medical care, legal services, prison education, training, library services, counseling and treatment services, religious services and other programs and services as shall be provided together with an allocation of the overhead for operating such prison and the Department in accordance with a fee schedule to be established by the Department.
(g) In assigning inmates to employment, work experience, training and community work project programs in accordance with this section:
(1) Assignments to programs conducted or operated outside the physical boundaries of Department-run correctional facilities shall not be available to inmates serving time for any crime classified as a class A felony, or any crime classified as a class B felony which involves a sex offense, escape or assault.
(2) The Department is authorized to establish regulations or guidelines further restricting the participation of inmates in such programs so as to minimize potential danger to the community.
(h) The Department is authorized to revoke previously earned good time (whether such good time was earned pursuant to this section or other provisions of this title) from inmates who refuse to perform labor as required by the Department pursuant to this section. In addition, the Department may impose such other lawful disciplinary measures as it deems appropriate upon inmates refusing to perform labor as required by the Department pursuant to this section.
(i) No greater amount of labor shall be required of any inmate than the inmate's physical health and strength will reasonably permit, nor shall any inmate be placed at such labor as the institutional physician determines to be beyond the inmate's ability to perform.
(j) Inmates refusing to participate in compulsory programs of employment established by the Department pursuant to this program shall not be eligible for parole nor shall the Department apply for modification of sentence, and shall further be subject to such other disciplinary measures as the Commissioner may establish by regulation.