Requires that curricula and educational programs provide incarcerated individuals the opportunity to earn educational or vocational credits which shall be transferable to an educational institution upon the release of the incarcerated individual.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5598
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 8, 2023
___________
Introduced by Sen. COMRIE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Crime Victims, Crime and
Correction
AN ACT to amend the correction law, in relation to requiring the educa-
tional and vocational credits earned by incarcerated individuals are
transferable upon release
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 136 of the correction law, as
2 amended by chapter 322 of the laws of 2021, is amended to read as
3 follows:
4 1. The objective of correctional education in its broadest sense
5 should be the socialization of the incarcerated individuals through
6 varied impressional and expressional activities, with emphasis on indi-
7 vidual incarcerated individual needs. The objective of this program
8 shall be the return of these incarcerated individuals to society with a
9 more wholesome attitude toward living, with a desire to conduct them-
10 selves as good citizens, and with the skill and knowledge which will
11 give them a reasonable chance to maintain themselves and their depen-
12 dents through honest labor. To this end each incarcerated individual
13 shall be given a program of education which, on the basis of available
14 data, seems most likely to further the process of socialization and
15 rehabilitation. Provided that, the commissioner, in consultation with
16 the commissioner of education, shall develop a curricula for and require
17 provision of an education program to all incarcerated individual, on a
18 periodic basis, on the consequences and prevention of shaken baby
19 syndrome which may include the viewing of a video presentation thereon.
20 The time daily devoted to such education shall be such as is required
21 for meeting the above objectives. The director of education, subject to
22 the direction of the commissioner and after consultation with the
23 commissioner of education, shall develop the curricula and the education
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03819-01-3
S. 5598 2
1 programs that are required to meet the special needs of each correction-
2 al facility in the department. The commissioner of education shall
3 ensure such curricula and educational programs provide incarcerated
4 individuals the opportunity to earn educational or vocational credits
5 which shall be transferable to an educational institution upon the
6 release of the incarcerated individual. The commissioner of education,
7 in cooperation with the commissioner and the director of education,
8 shall set up the educational requirements for the certification of
9 teachers in all such correctional facilities. Such educational require-
10 ments shall be sufficiently broad and comprehensive to include training
11 in penology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, in the special subjects
12 to be taught, and in any other professional courses as may be deemed
13 necessary by the responsible officers, and shall include training relat-
14 ing to the consequences and prevention of shaken baby syndrome which may
15 include the viewing of a video presentation thereon. No certificates for
16 teaching service in the state institutions shall be issued unless a
17 minimum of four years of training beyond the high school has been
18 secured, or an acceptable equivalent. Existing requirements for the
19 certification of teachers in the institutions shall continue in force
20 until changed pursuant to the provisions of this section.
21 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
