Requires that the report the correction medical review board issues regarding the death of any inmate be issued to the governor, the chairman of the assembly committee on correction and the chairman of the senate committee on crime victims, crime and correction, and requires that such report shall not be redacted except as otherwise required to protect confidential records.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A4336
SPONSOR: Weprin TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the correction law, in relation to the
report the correction medical review board is required to issue regard-
ing the death of any inmate
PURPOSE:
This bill provides that the State Commission of Correction shall only
redact its death review to the extent required by state and federal law
to protect confidential medical and behavioral health records.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends Correction Law (47) (1) (d). Section 2 provides an
effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
The Assembly and Senate have legislative oversight of state and local
correctional facilities. The State Commission of Correction conducts
reviews of all inmate deaths in New York correctional facilities and
writes reports on the reviews. When the legislature seeks copies of the
death reviews, the reports are so heavily redacted it is often impossi-
ble to tell what happened or why an inmate died. Instead of redacting
words or phrases, entire paragraphs and complete pages are routinely
blacked out in the reports provided to members of the legislature. This
bill would limit redaction of such reports to the requirements of HIPPA
and other laws concerning confidentiality of medical and mental health
information. All other information would remain unredacted in the report
so that the legislature could understand what is happening in New York
correctional facilities in order to perform its duties.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
03/03/17 referred to correction
03/23/17 advanced to third reading ca1.165
01/03/18 ordered to third reading cal.453
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None
LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
4336
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 4, 2019
___________
Introduced by M. of A. WEPRIN, BLAKE -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Correction
AN ACT to amend the correction law, in relation to the report the
correction medical review board is required to issue regarding the
death of any inmate
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph (d) of subdivision 1 of section 47 of the
2 correction law, as added by chapter 865 of the laws of 1975, is amended
3 to read as follows:
4 (d) Upon review of the cause of death and circumstances surrounding
5 the death of any inmate, the board shall submit its report thereon to
6 the commission and to the recipients of the annual report pursuant to
7 subdivision seventeen of section forty-five of this article and, where
8 appropriate, make recommendations to prevent the recurrence of such
9 deaths to the commission and the administrator of the appropriate
10 correctional facility. Such report shall not be redacted except as
11 otherwise required to protect confidential medical records and behav-
12 ioral health records in accordance with state and federal laws, rules,
13 and regulations.
14 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD08549-01-9
