No officer or employee of the Department of Correctional Services who has charge, control, or direction of any inmates shall be in any manner whatever financially interested in the work or profit of the labor of any inmate, and no such officer or employee shall receive any pay, gift, gratuity, or favor of a valuable character from any person interested either directly or indirectly in such labor. Any person violating this section shall be guilty of a Class IV felony. The offense may be reduced to a misdemeanor upon recommendation of the jury, if the court concurs in the recommendation. In such a case, the defendant shall be summarily discharged by the Director of Correctional Services.