2006 New York Code - Food And Labor.

 
    §  500-d.  Food  and  labor.   Prisoners detained for trial, and those
  under sentence, shall be provided with a sufficient  quantity  of  plain
  but  wholesome  food,  at the expense of the county; such foods shall be
  purchased in the manner and  subject  to  the  regulations  provided  in
  section four hundred eight of the county law; but prisoners detained for
  trial  may, at their own expense, and under the direction of the keeper,
  be supplied with any other proper articles of food.  Such  keeper  shall
  cause  each  prisoner  committed  to  his  jail  for  imprisonment under
  sentence, to be constantly employed  at  hard  labor  when  practicable,
  during every day, except Sunday but the Sunday exception shall not apply
  where a prisoner under sentence of intermittent imprisonment serves less
  than  the  five preceding days in the jail and the keeper has adopted an
  employment program designed especially  for  intermittent  imprisonment,
  and  the board of supervisors of the county, or judge of the county, may
  prescribe the kind of labor at which such prisoner  shall  be  employed;
  and  the  keeper  shall  account,  at  least annually, with the board of
  supervisors of the county, for the proceeds of such labor.  Such  keeper
  may,  with the consent of the board of supervisors of the county, or the
  county judge, from time to time, cause such of the  convicts  under  his
  charge  as are capable of hard labor, to be employed outside of the jail
  in the same, or in an adjoining county, upon such terms as may be agreed
  upon between the keepers and  the  officers,  or  persons,  under  whose
  direction  such convicts shall be placed, subject to such regulations as
  the board or judge may prescribe; and the board of  supervisors  of  the
  several  counties  are  authorized  to employ convicts under sentence to
  confinement in  the  county  jails,  in  building  and  repairing  penal
  institutions of the county and in building and repairing the highways in
  their  respective  counties  or  in  preparing  the  materials  for such
  highways for sale to and for the use  of  the  state,  counties,  towns,
  villages  or cities, and in cutting wood and performing other work which
  is commonly carried  on  at  a  prison  camp,  and  to  make  rules  and
  regulations  for their employment; and the said board of supervisors are
  hereby authorized to cause money  to  be  raised  by  taxation  for  the
  purpose of furnishing materials and carrying this provision into effect;
  and  the courts of this state are hereby authorized to sentence convicts
  committed to detention in the county jails to such hard labor as may  be
  provided for them by the boards of supervisors.  This section as amended
  shall not affect a county wholly included within a city.