STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
4890
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
February 14, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sen. SCARCELLA-SPANTON -- read twice and ordered printed,
and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Codes
AN ACT to amend the penal law and the correction law, in relation to
establishing the crime of harassment of an employee by an incarcerated
individual
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The penal law is amended by adding a new section 240.34 to
2 read as follows:
3 § 240.34 Harassment of an employee by an incarcerated individual.
4 An incarcerated individual or respondent is guilty of harassment of an
5 employee by an incarcerated individual when, with intent to harass,
6 annoy, threaten or alarm a person in a facility whom such incarcerated
7 individual knows or reasonably should know to be an employee of such
8 facility or the board of parole or the office of mental health, or a
9 probation department, bureau or unit or a police officer, such incarcer-
10 ated individual, for the purpose of degrading or abusing an employee, or
11 for the purpose of gratifying such incarcerated individual's sexual
12 desire:
13 1. Displays or touches their intimate parts while in clear view of an
14 employee; or
15 2. Intentionally engages in conduct that such incarcerated individual
16 knows would cause an employee to be in clear view of such incarcerated
17 individual while such incarcerated individual displays or touches their
18 intimate parts; or
19 3. Communicates to an employee such incarcerated individual will, at
20 some time in the future, cause such employee to come in contact with
21 such incarcerated individual's blood, urine, seminal fluid, or feces.
22 For purposes of this section, "incarcerated individual" means an
23 incarcerated individual or detainee in a correctional facility, local
24 correctional facility or a hospital, as such term is defined in subdivi-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD07804-01-5
S. 4890 2
1 sion two of section four hundred of the correction law. For purposes of
2 this section, "respondent" means a juvenile in a secure facility oper-
3 ated and maintained by the office of children and family services who is
4 placed with or committed to the office of children and family services.
5 For purposes of this section, "facility" means a correctional facility
6 or local correctional facility, hospital, as such term is defined in
7 subdivision two of section four hundred of the correction law, or a
8 secure facility operated and maintained by the office of children and
9 family services.
10 Harassment of an employee by an incarcerated individual is a class B
11 misdemeanor.
12 § 2. Subdivision 2 of section 851 of the correction law, as amended by
13 section 228 of chapter 322 of the laws of 2021, is amended to read as
14 follows:
15 2. "Eligible incarcerated individual" means: a person confined in an
16 institution who is eligible for release on parole or who will become
17 eligible for release on parole or conditional release within two years.
18 Provided, however, that a person under sentence for an offense defined
19 in paragraphs (a) and (b) of subdivision one of section 70.02 of the
20 penal law, where such offense involved the use or threatened use of a
21 deadly weapon or dangerous instrument shall not be eligible to partic-
22 ipate in a work release program until [he or she] such person is eligi-
23 ble for release on parole or who will be eligible for release on parole
24 or conditional release within eighteen months. Provided, further, howev-
25 er, that a person under a determinate sentence as a second felony drug
26 offender for a class B felony offense defined in article two hundred
27 twenty of the penal law, who was sentenced pursuant to section 70.70 of
28 such law, shall not be eligible to participate in a temporary release
29 program until the time served under imprisonment for [his or her] such
30 person's determinate sentence, including any jail time credited pursuant
31 to the provisions of article seventy of the penal law, shall be at least
32 eighteen months. In the case of a person serving an indeterminate
33 sentence of imprisonment imposed pursuant to the penal law in effect
34 after September one, nineteen hundred sixty-seven, for the purposes of
35 this article parole eligibility shall be upon the expiration of the
36 minimum period of imprisonment fixed by the court or where the court has
37 not fixed any period, after service of the minimum period fixed by the
38 state board of parole. If an incarcerated individual is denied release
39 on parole, such incarcerated individual shall not be deemed an eligible
40 incarcerated individual until [he or she] such incarcerated individual
41 is within two years of [his or her] such incarcerated individual's next
42 scheduled appearance before the state parole board. In any case where an
43 incarcerated individual is denied release on parole while participating
44 in a temporary release program, the department shall review the status
45 of the incarcerated individual to determine if continued placement in
46 the program is appropriate. No person convicted of any escape or
47 absconding offense defined in article two hundred five of the penal law
48 shall be eligible for temporary release. Further, no person under
49 sentence for aggravated harassment of an employee by an incarcerated
50 individual as defined in section 240.32 of the penal law for, no person
51 under sentence for harassment of an employee by an incarcerated individ-
52 ual as defined in section 240.34 of the penal law for, any homicide
53 offense defined in article one hundred twenty-five of the penal law, for
54 any sex offense defined in article one hundred thirty of the penal law,
55 or for an offense defined in section 255.25, 255.26 or 255.27 of the
56 penal law shall be eligible to participate in a work release program as
S. 4890 3
1 defined in subdivision three of this section. Nor shall any person under
2 sentence for any sex offense defined in article one hundred thirty of
3 the penal law be eligible to participate in a community services program
4 as defined in subdivision five of this section. Notwithstanding the
5 foregoing, no person who is an otherwise eligible incarcerated individ-
6 ual who is under sentence for a crime involving: (a) infliction of seri-
7 ous physical injury upon another as defined in the penal law or (b) any
8 other offense involving the use or threatened use of a deadly weapon may
9 participate in a temporary release program without the written approval
10 of the commissioner. The commissioner shall promulgate regulations
11 giving direction to the temporary release committee at each institution
12 in order to aid such committees in carrying out this mandate.
13 The governor, by executive order, may exclude or limit the partic-
14 ipation of any class of otherwise eligible incarcerated individuals from
15 participation in a temporary release program. Nothing in this paragraph
16 shall be construed to affect either the validity of any executive order
17 previously issued limiting the participation of otherwise eligible
18 incarcerated individuals in such program or the authority of the commis-
19 sioner to impose appropriate regulations limiting such participation.
20 § 3. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall
21 have become a law; provided, however, the amendments to subdivision 2 of
22 section 851 of the correction law made by section two of this act
23 shall not affect the expiration of such subdivision or section and shall
24 expire and be deemed repealed therewith.
