Amd Cor L, generally; amd §677, County L; amd §2.10, CP L; amd §285, Ed L; amd §§63, 169 & 837-a, Exec L; amd
§33.13, Ment Hyg L; amd §§2782 & 2786, Pub Health L; amd §92, Pub Off L; amd §460-c, Soc Serv L
Creates the office of the correctional ombudsman to achieve transparency, fairness, impartiality and accountability in New York state correctional facilities; relates to reports by coroners; designates investigators of the office of the correctional ombudsman as peace officers; authorizes the attorney general to investigate the alleged commission of any criminal offense committed by an employee of the department of corrections and community supervision in connection with his or her official duties; relates to the confidentiality of certain records; and includes the office of the correctional ombudsman records within the definition of public safety agency records; makes related provisions.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A9939
SPONSOR: O'Donnell TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the correction law, in relation to creating the office
of the correctional ombudsman; to amend the county law, in relation to
reports by coroners; to amend the criminal procedure law, in relation to
designating investigators of the office of the correctional ombudsman as
peace officers; to amend the education law, in relation to the certif-
ication of inmate populations; to amend the executive law, in relation
to authorizing the attorney general to investigate the alleged commis-
sion of any criminal offense committed by an employee of the department
of corrections and community supervision in connection with his or her
official duties; to amend the executive law, in relation to the division
of criminal justice services; to amend the mental hygiene law, in
relation to clinical records; to amend the public health law, in
relation to the confidentiality of certain records; to amend the public
officers law, in relation to including the office of the correctional
ombudsman records within the definition of public safety agency records;
and to amend the social services law, in relation to inspection and
supervision
PURPOSE:
This bill creates the office of the correctional ombudsman.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 creates the office of the correctional ombudsman; section 2
amends section 2 of the correction law; sections 3-7 amend sections 40,
42, 45, 46, and 47 of the correction law, respectively; sections 8-10
amends sections 89-a, 89-3 and 89-f of the correction law, respectively;
section 11 amends section 112 of the correction law; section 12 amends
section 146 of the correction law; sections 13-15 amend sections 853,
854 and 857 of the correction law, respectively; section 16 amends
section 677 of the county law; section 17 amends section 2.10 of the
criminal procedure law; section 18 amends section 285 of the education
law; section 19 amends section 63 of the executive law; section 20
amends section 169 of the executive law; section 21 amends section 837-a
of the executive law; section 22 amends section 33.13 of the mental
hygiene law; sections 23-24 amend sections 2782 and 2786 of the public
health law, respectively; section 25 amends section 92 of the public
officers law; and section 26 amends section 460-c of the social services
law.
Section 27 provides an effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has come under
increased public scrutiny in the last few years. The union for correc-
tional officers, NYSCOBA, claims that assaults on staff are rising
steadily, and our state prisons are becoming more violent. The FBI
recently opened an investigation into the severe beating of an inmate
whose eye sockets were broken by correctional officers at Downstate
Correctional Facility. Two security staff members at Greene Correctional
Facility were fired after arranging for an inmate who had lodged
complaints against them to be beaten up in the shower and then covering
up the attack. The incident was investigated by the State Inspector
General because the DOCCS Inspector General was forced to step down
after being accused of harassment of a staff member as part of a broader
pattern of harassment that went on for years. In April 2015, two
inmates, Samuel Harrell and Karl Taylor, were killed in separate alter-
cations with security staff at Fishkill and Sullivan Correctional Facil-
ities. In June 2015, two inmates escaped from Clinton Correctional
Facility, a maximum security prison in Dannemora, New York, near the
Canadian border. The inmates received tools and information aiding in
their escape from a correctional officer and a civilian correctional
employee who had a prior complaint lodged against her for having an
inappropriate relationship with one of the inmates. That complaint was
internally investigated and dismissed by the Department. The inmate
involved was not even transferred out of Clinton, but kept working with
the same civilian employee in the tailor shop. Although one of the esca-
pees was shot dead by the border patrol, the other inmate was captured.
He told investigators that they had spent several months preparing for
the escape, sawing through their cell walls at night and exploring the
heating and sewer systems in order to find a route out of the prison.
Security is supposed to conduct hourly bed checks of inmates. After the
escape, inmates from Clinton complained of retaliation against many
inmates in the same housing block as the escapees, including inability
to communicate with family members, transfer to solitary confinement
cells, deprivation of food, medicine and personal property, harassment,
threats and beatings to extract information.
It is difficult to evaluate or understand what is happening behind pris-
on walls. The State Inspector General and the Justice Center for the
Protection of People with Special Needs do not, with limited exceptions,
have jurisdiction over the prison system. State police are sometimes
called in when DOCCS believes a crime has been committed, but usually
only when inmates are alleged to have committed a crime, not when staff
may have acted illegally. Currently, DOCCS maintains its own investi-
gative body, the Office of Special Investigations (OSI), to investigate
grievances and unusual incidents, among other issues. There is an inher-
ent conflict of interest in having DOCCS staff investigate incidents
involving correctional employees. DOCCS investigators, most of whom are
former or current security staff, are not impartial or unbiased, nor is
it reasonable to expect them to be so given the very polarized atmos-
phere of some prisons in which both inmates and staff feel unsafe.
This bill would not force DOCCS to stop investigating unusual incidents
in its prisons, it would simply create an independent public oversight
agency, the office of the correctional ombudsman, to monitor the pris-
ons, investigate complaints and report to the governor, the legislature,
DOCCS and the public. The goal of this legislation is to achieve trans-
parency, fairness, impartiality and accountability in our state correc-
tional system. Many other states and countries have ombudsman or inspec-
tor generals who remain outside of the correctional department and who
work with its staff to create safer and more humane prisons. The Inspec-
tor General of the California prison system says that the role of his
office is to be a guide dog, not an attack dog, they only bark when the
department steps off the sidewalk. That is the role envisioned for the
Office of the Correctional Ombudsman; to solve problems, provide trans-
parency and make recommendations to the Department.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined
LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect one year after it shall have become law.
