Requires the department of corrections and community supervision to create a family reunion program to provide eligible incarcerated individuals and their families the opportunity to meet for an extended period of time in a residential setting.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5087
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
February 18, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sens. SEPULVEDA, FERNANDEZ -- 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 establishing the
family reunion program
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. Family reunion program. 1. The department shall create a
4 family reunion program to provide eligible incarcerated individuals and
5 their families the opportunity to meet for an extended period of time in
6 privacy in a residential setting. Such program shall be available at
7 every general confinement maximum-security state correctional facility
8 and at any medium-security state correctional facility with a general
9 confinement incarcerated individual population capacity of over eight
10 hundred beds. Program facilities and administration may be shared among
11 correctional facilities. Smaller medium-security facilities located near
12 maximum-security facilities or large medium-security facilities may be
13 permitted to participate in the program at such facilities. Family reun-
14 ion programs shall contain enough housing units to accommodate family
15 reunion program visits at least one time every four months for eligible
16 incarcerated individuals.
17 2. Incarcerated individuals who maintain a good disciplinary record,
18 who comply with departmental program requirements and who do not pose a
19 current danger pursuant to subdivision four of this section shall be
20 eligible to apply for participation in the family reunion program. A
21 good disciplinary record shall mean the incarcerated individual has not
22 resided in a segregated confinement unit or in keep lock for a sanction
23 for misbehavior for over fifteen days within the last six months prior
24 to the visit. An incarcerated individual who has not maintained a good
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD07450-01-5
S. 5087 2
1 disciplinary record may reapply for family reunion program participation
2 six months after being released from segregated confinement or keep
3 lock. Incarcerated individuals who are denied participation in the
4 program may appeal to the commissioner. Once an incarcerated individual
5 has been approved for participation in the family reunion program, such
6 incarcerated individual shall remain eligible to participate unless such
7 eligibility is taken away for bad conduct, failure to comply with
8 departmental program requirements or because such incarcerated individ-
9 ual has been determined to pose a current danger to self or others
10 pursuant to subdivision four of this section. If an incarcerated indi-
11 vidual is transferred to a new facility, such incarcerated individual's
12 eligibility for the family reunion program will continue and such incar-
13 cerated individual shall be eligible to participate in the family reun-
14 ion program at such new facility thirty days after arrival.
15 3. (a) Applications for participation in the family reunion program
16 may be made for the following family members who have established a
17 pattern of visitation, as defined by three visits in the last twelve
18 months unless such family member lives out of state, is disabled, elder-
19 ly or a minor, or lives more than three hundred miles from the facility
20 where the incarcerated individual is housed. In such cases, the visitor
21 shall be allowed to participate in the family reunion program without
22 establishing a recent pattern of visitation if such visitor is otherwise
23 eligible. The department shall provide reasonable accommodations for
24 disabled visitors and incarcerated individuals upon request. The number
25 of visitors at any one time shall be limited to the occupancy capacity
26 of the family reunion program unit, as determined by the fire and safety
27 official with jurisdiction over such units. The following family members
28 may be eligible for participation in the program:
29 (i) legal spouses, including a spouse who marries an incarcerated
30 individual during the term of such incarcerated individual's incarcera-
31 tion;
32 (ii) children or stepchildren of the incarcerated individual, who may
33 be accompanied by their non-incarcerated parent;
34 (iii) parents or stepparents of the incarcerated individual;
35 (iv) grandparents;
36 (v) siblings;
37 (vi) grandchildren of the incarcerated individual; and
38 (vii) with special approval from the facility superintendent, siblings
39 of parents, cousins, foster parents and in-laws of the incarcerated
40 individual, with proof of relationship.
41 (b) An eligible visitor may lose eligibility if such visitor is in
42 violation of a serious rule or regulation of the program, as determined
43 by the commissioner. Any visitor who loses such visitor's eligibility to
44 participate in the program shall be granted due process and shall be
45 eligible to participate in the program after a reasonable waiting period
46 unless such visitor has been convicted of a crime related to such visi-
47 tor's participation in the program.
48 4. Incarcerated individuals who pose a current danger to themselves or
49 others may be denied family reunion program visitation. Such denial must
50 be made on a case-by-case basis at the time visitation is sought and
51 shall be made in writing, with a copy to the incarcerated individual and
52 to the proposed visitor. When such danger has passed, the incarcerated
53 individual shall again be eligible for participation in the program
54 unless such incarcerated individual has failed to maintain a good disci-
55 plinary record or to comply with the department's program requirements.
56 Incarcerated individuals who test positive for human immunodeficiency
S. 5087 3
1 virus or hepatitis B or C, may participate in the program with informed
2 consent of the visitor or visitors.
3 § 2. This act shall take effect one year after it shall have become a
4 law.
