Requires the department of corrections and community supervision to place female inmates at correctional institutions and facilities closest to their home.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
7593
2011-2012 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
May 10, 2011
___________
Introduced by M. of A. N. RIVERA -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Correction
AN ACT to amend the correction law, in relation to requiring the depart-
ment of corrections and community supervision to place female inmates
at correctional institutions and facilities closest to their home
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Legislative intent. The legislature hereby finds that in
2 order to improve the outcomes for women incarcerated in New York state
3 prisons and that in order to provide for a more stable family environ-
4 ment for the children of incarcerated mothers, there must be a clear
5 demonstration by government bureaucracies involved with correctional
6 services to provide the least restrictive environments for women prison-
7 ers so that they can remain in close proximity to their families and
8 children during their stay in state prison.
9 It is a well understood factor by health care professionals and social
10 workers that the ability of incarcerated mothers to maintain close and
11 constant contact with their family and children is a contributing factor
12 to rehabilitation and better re-integration into society once their
13 sentence is served.
14 Currently, over eighty-three percent of women in New York state pris-
15 ons were convicted of non-violent offenses. Yet their sentences incorpo-
16 rate a penalty not quantified in law but serves as an additional punish-
17 ment by placing the majority of these women in prison facilities an
18 unnecessarily long distance away from their families and children
19 Over five thousand two hundred New York children have mothers in pris-
20 on. For many of these children, seeing their mothers and scheduling
21 visitations is a hardship. They are forced to travel as far as eight
22 hour, one-way trips to see their mothers. For most this is an expense
23 and a hardship that rests on elderly family members and innocent chil-
24 dren.
25 It has been estimated that over ninety percent of incarcerated women
26 in New York have been the victims of sexual and/or physical abuse at
27 some point in their lives. Another forty-five percent have been diag-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11174-02-1
A. 7593 2
1 nosed with mental illness. Yet they are sentenced to facilities far from
2 their families and in a manner that is inconsistent with what research
3 and mental health care professionals tell us: That being close to family
4 and having access to family members is a factor in recovery from mental
5 illness and a contributor to better managing their illness.
6 It is clear women prisoners must be housed in correctional facilities
7 as close to their homes as possible and as administratively permissible
8 that in order to better meet the rehabilitation needs of incarcerated
9 mothers and to better meet the emotional and psychological needs of
10 their children. The continued costs to society of continuing to house
11 women prisoners long distances from their families and children can be
12 reduced significantly by better managing the placement of women prison-
13 ers at time of sentence and by the New York state department of
14 corrections and community supervision.
15 § 2. Section 158 of the correction law, as added by chapter 788 of the
16 laws of 1968, is amended to read as follows:
17 § 158. Designation of Place of Confinement. 1. The commissioner may
18 designate as a place of confinement of a prisoner any available, suit-
19 able and appropriate correctional institution or facility whether main-
20 tained by the city, state or federal government and may at any time
21 transfer a prisoner from one place of confinement to another. Where such
22 designation or transfer is to either a state or federal correctional
23 institution or facility, it shall be subject to the prior approval of
24 the appropriate person or agency having jurisdiction and control over
25 such facility and upon such terms and conditions as such person or agen-
26 cy deems appropriate.
27 2. Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision one of this section,
28 the commissioner shall designate as a place of confinement of a female
29 prisoner, who has children and/or has been identified as having a mental
30 illness as defined in section four hundred of this chapter, the correc-
31 tional institution or facility which is located in closest proximity to
32 the female prisoner's home or to the home of her children, provided that
33 such correctional institution or facility is suitable and appropriate as
34 determined by the commissioner, unless such female prisoner has been
35 identified as having a mental illness and the commissioner deems that
36 such placement would pose a threat to the family and/or children of such
37 female prisoner.
38 § 3. The commissioner of the department of corrections and community
39 supervision is authorized and directed to implement and finalize a proc-
40 ess to relocate female prisoners currently in the custody of the depart-
41 ment of corrections and community supervision to correctional insti-
42 tutions and facilities which are located in the closest proximity to the
43 female prisoner's home or the home of her children, within nine months
44 from the effective date of this section.
45 § 4. The commissioner of the department of corrections and community
46 supervision shall collect and maintain the following data from all pris-
47 oners:
48 1. marital status; and
49 2. whether such prisoner has children, and if so, who has custody of
50 such children.
51 § 5. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
52 have become a law, provided, however, that effective immediately, the
53 addition and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the
54 implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized and
55 directed to be made and completed on or before such effective date.
