Former Provisions of the Constitution of the State of Ohio, 1851 Former Art. II, § 41

Laws shall be passed providing for the occupation and employment of prisoners sentenced to the several penal institutions and reformatories in the state;  and no person in any such penal institution or reformatory while under sentence thereto, shall be required or allowed to work at any trade, industry or occupation, wherein or whereby his work, or the product or profit of his work, shall be sold, farmed out, contracted or given away;  and goods made by persons under sentence to any penal institution or reformatory without the State of Ohio, and such goods made within the State of Ohio, excepting those disposed of to the state or any political sub-division thereof or to any public institution owned, managed or controlled by the state or any political sub-division thereof, shall not be sold within this state unless the same are conspicuously marked “prison made.”  Nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent the passage of laws providing that convicts may work for, and that the products of their labor may be disposed of to, the state or any political sub-division thereof, or for or to any public institution owned or managed and controlled by the state or any political sub-division thereof.