Establishes the reentry assistance program; provides for eligible incarcerated individuals to receive a monthly stipend upon release from a state correctional facility; makes an appropriation of $25,000,000.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6990
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 18, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. GIBBS -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Correction
AN ACT to amend the correction law and the state finance law, in
relation to providing for money upon release for certain incarcerated
individuals; and making an appropriation therefor
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 12 to
2 read as follows:
3 § 12. Reentry assistance program. 1. As used in this section, the
4 following terms shall have the following meanings:
5 (a) "Program" means the reentry assistance program established pursu-
6 ant to subdivision two of this section.
7 (b) "Eligible incarcerated individual" means an incarcerated individ-
8 ual who is released from a state correctional facility after serving a
9 minimum of six months who has not previously received money from the
10 program.
11 2. The commissioner shall develop a reentry assistance program that
12 provides for eligible incarcerated individuals to receive a monthly
13 stipend upon release from a state correctional facility.
14 3. (a) Stipends paid to an eligible incarcerated individual pursuant
15 to the program shall be no less than four hundred twenty-five dollars
16 per month for a period of up to six months. The maximum aggregate
17 amount any individual shall receive from the program is two thousand
18 five hundred fifty dollars.
19 (b) The dollar amounts in paragraph (a) of this subdivision shall be
20 adjusted annually for inflation as determined from the increase in the
21 consumer price index in the one year period ending on the March thirty-
22 first prior to the cost-of-living adjustment effective on the ensuing
23 September first.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD10681-01-5
A. 6990 2
1 4. (a) The initial payment of a program stipend shall be made imme-
2 diately upon release of the eligible incarcerated individual in the form
3 of cash or a check. Such program stipend shall be in addition to any
4 other funds to be paid or returned to such individual.
5 (b) Subsequent program stipend payments shall be made on the first of
6 each month by the community supervision agency responsible for such
7 individual.
8 5. The provisions of this section shall not apply to an incarcerated
9 individual who is released to the custody of another state or the feder-
10 al government.
11 6. Stipend payments paid pursuant to the provisions of this section
12 shall not be taken into consideration when determining eligibility or
13 calculating the amount of benefits for any public assistance program.
14 7. The department shall collect data on the number of incarcerated
15 individuals participating in the program and issue a report on such data
16 to the governor, the temporary president of the senate and the speaker
17 of the assembly annually.
18 8. The commissioner shall promulgate any rules and regulations neces-
19 sary for the implementation of this section.
20 § 2. The state finance law is amended by adding a new section 99-ss to
21 read as follows:
22 § 99-ss. Reentry assistance fund. 1. A special fund to be known as the
23 "reentry assistance fund" is hereby established in the custody of the
24 state comptroller and the commissioner of taxation and finance.
25 2. The fund shall consist of all monies appropriated, credited, or
26 transferred to such fund pursuant to law, all monies required by any
27 provision of law to be paid into or credited to the fund and any inter-
28 est earnings which may accrue from the investment of monies in the fund.
29 Nothing contained in this section shall prevent the state from receiving
30 grants, gifts or bequests for the purposes of the fund as defined in
31 this section and depositing them in the fund according to law.
32 3. Monies of the fund, when allocated, shall be available to the
33 department of corrections and community supervision to provide stipends
34 pursuant to the provisions of section twelve of the correction law.
35 4. Monies shall be payable from the fund on the audit and warrant of
36 the comptroller on vouchers approved and certified by the commissioner
37 of corrections and community supervision.
38 § 3. The sum of twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000) is hereby
39 appropriated from any moneys in the state treasury in the general fund
40 to the credit of the reentry assistance fund established pursuant to
41 section 99-ss of the state finance law in carrying out the provisions of
42 this act. Such sum shall be payable on the audit and warrant of the
43 state comptroller on vouchers certified or approved in the manner
44 provided by law.
45 § 4. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
46 it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amend-
47 ment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implemen-
48 tation of this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and
49 completed on or before such effective date.
