New York introduces prisoner-built hand sanitizer to fight coronavirus

New York is battling the coronavirus – and cost gouging – with a germ-killing hand sanitizer created by greatest-safety prison inmates who work for fewer than 65 cents an hour.

“As the quantity of confirmed scenarios of the coronavirus carries on to rise, unscrupulous vendors are exploiting New Yorkers’ anxieties about the virus, and charging exorbitant prices for hand sanitizer and other similar solutions,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo stated Monday at a information convention in which he unveiled the new item.

He said the inmate-generated “NYS Thoroughly clean Hand Sanitizer” will be available to New York inhabitants absolutely free of charge as nicely as to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates New York’s subways and commuter railroads, to other condition agencies and to New Rochelle, the Westchester County town that’s been the epicenter of the state’s coronavirus outbreak.

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The New York Post quoted Cuomo saying that “it’s a lot more cost-effective for us to make it ourselves than to acquire it on the open market.” He stated a gallon jug of the condition-made products expenses $6 to make.

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But the Lawful Assist Modern society, which signifies indigent defendants, accused Cuomo of  “exploiting incarcerated New Yorkers to produce low cost hand sanitizers,” according to the Article.

“This is almost nothing less than slave labor and it ought to finish,” the team explained.

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The hand sanitizer is currently being produced at the Terrific Meadow Correctional Facility in upstate New York, which has the capacity to make 100,000 gallons of hand sanitizer for each week.

New York pays inmates a lot less than 65 cents an hour, according to Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.