Section 170. Contracts prohibited

1.  The  commissioner of correctional
  services 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.
    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.