Establishes visiting policies for incarcerated people, to provide incarcerated people opportunities for personal contact with relatives, friends, clergy, volunteers and other persons to promote better institutional adjustment and better community adjustment upon release.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A6488A
SPONSOR: Weprin TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the correction law, in relation to the establishment of
visiting policies for incarcerated people
PURPOSE:
To establish a visitation policy in state and local correctional facili-
ties
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 adds a new section 138-b to the correction law establishing a
section authorizing a visitation program for incarcerated individuals.
Section 2 clarifies that individuals that are incarcerated have the
right to accept or deny a visit
Section 3 provides an effective date.
EXISTING LAW:
N/A
JUSTIFICATION:
Research has shown that incarcerated individuals who receive visits from
family, friends and volunteers are significantly less likely to recidi-
vate than those who do not receive visits. DOCCS has long allowed visi-
tation in its facilities, although nothing in law requires them to do
so. The benefits of a visitation program include but are not limited to:
providing jobs for correctional staff, incentivizing program partic-
ipation, increasing the morale of those that are incarcerates, improves
facility safety, and facilitating reentry through the preservation of
family bonds. This bill ensures that video visitation may not take the
place of in-person visiting. The goal of the visitation program is to
provide institutional safety, rehabilitation and public safety. This
legislation also calls for a policy to be created to facilitate visita-
tions during high peak times. Additionally it requires that these facil-
ities also offer visiting during evenings and weekends.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
Passed Assembly in 2017, Advanced to Third Reading in the Assembly in
2018 S.2698 of 2019; Passed Senate S2698 of 2020; Referred to Crime
Victims, Crime and Correction
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect one hundred and twenty days after it shall
have become law.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6488--A
Cal. No. 184
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
April 11, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. WEPRIN, WALKER, EPSTEIN, REYES, CRUZ, AUBRY,
HUNTER, TAYLOR, BURDICK, BURGOS, GONZALEZ-ROJAS, JACKSON, BARRETT,
GIBBS, DAVILA, KELLES, SIMONE, ARDILA, SEPTIMO, TAPIA, BURKE, CUNNING-
HAM, CLARK, MEEKS, SHIMSKY, HEVESI, DINOWITZ, MAMDANI, JEAN-PIERRE,
SIMON, ZACCARO, ANDERSON, BICHOTTE HERMELYN, LEVENBERG, BORES,
L. ROSENTHAL -- read once and referred to the Committee on Correction
-- ordered to a third reading, amended and ordered reprinted, retain-
ing its place on the order of third reading
AN ACT to amend the correction law, in relation to the establishment of
visiting policies for incarcerated people
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The correction law is amended by adding a new section 138-b
2 to read as follows:
3 § 138-b. Visiting policies for the incarcerated. 1. State and local
4 correctional facilities shall establish visiting policies which give
5 incarcerated people opportunities for in-person contact with their rela-
6 tives, children, friends, clergy, volunteers and other persons to
7 promote individual transformation, better institutional adjustment and
8 better community adjustment upon release. Such program shall include,
9 but not be limited to, (a) visiting hours that are reasonably likely to
10 accommodate persons traveling from within the state, including evening
11 hours starting at six o'clock p.m. and/or weekend hours, (b) visits of
12 sufficient duration, including a minimum of one hour at local correc-
13 tional facilities so that visitors and incarcerated people will be able
14 to maintain relationship bonds, and (c) a published overcrowding policy
15 that is equitable with due consideration to the distance traveled by the
16 visitor, the frequency of the visitor's visits, the most recent occasion
17 that the incarcerated person's visit was terminated due to overcrowding,
18 and any other individual circumstances that limit in-person visits
19 between the incarcerated person and the visitor.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00238-02-4
A. 6488--A 2
1 2. Video conferencing may supplement, but shall not take the place of,
2 in-person visits. For the purposes of this section, video conferencing
3 or other technologies that enable remote visitation shall not count
4 toward the required number of visits or duration of visitation that any
5 facility must offer to incarcerated individuals by law or regulation.
6 3. No incarcerated person is to be visited against his or her will by
7 any person.
8 § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after
9 it shall have become a law.
