Establishes visiting policies for incarcerated people, to provide incarcerated people opportunities for personal contact with relatives, friends, clergy, volunteers and other persons to promote better institutional adjustment and better community adjustment upon release.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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6488--A
Cal. No. 184
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
April 11, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. WEPRIN, WALKER, EPSTEIN, REYES, CRUZ, AUBRY,
HUNTER, TAYLOR, BURDICK, BURGOS, GONZALEZ-ROJAS, JACKSON, BARRETT,
GIBBS, DAVILA, KELLES, SIMONE, ARDILA, SEPTIMO, TAPIA, BURKE, CUNNING-
HAM, CLARK, MEEKS, SHIMSKY, HEVESI, DINOWITZ, MAMDANI, JEAN-PIERRE,
SIMON, ZACCARO, ANDERSON, BICHOTTE HERMELYN, LEVENBERG, BORES,
L. ROSENTHAL -- read once and referred to the Committee on Correction
-- ordered to a third reading, amended and ordered reprinted, retain-
ing its place on the order of third reading
AN ACT to amend the correction law, in relation to the establishment of
visiting policies for incarcerated people
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. Visiting policies for the incarcerated. 1. State and local
4 correctional facilities shall establish visiting policies which give
5 incarcerated people opportunities for in-person contact with their rela-
6 tives, children, friends, clergy, volunteers and other persons to
7 promote individual transformation, better institutional adjustment and
8 better community adjustment upon release. Such program shall include,
9 but not be limited to, (a) visiting hours that are reasonably likely to
10 accommodate persons traveling from within the state, including evening
11 hours starting at six o'clock p.m. and/or weekend hours, (b) visits of
12 sufficient duration, including a minimum of one hour at local correc-
13 tional facilities so that visitors and incarcerated people will be able
14 to maintain relationship bonds, and (c) a published overcrowding policy
15 that is equitable with due consideration to the distance traveled by the
16 visitor, the frequency of the visitor's visits, the most recent occasion
17 that the incarcerated person's visit was terminated due to overcrowding,
18 and any other individual circumstances that limit in-person visits
19 between the incarcerated person and the visitor.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00238-02-4
A. 6488--A 2
1 2. Video conferencing may supplement, but shall not take the place of,
2 in-person visits. For the purposes of this section, video conferencing
3 or other technologies that enable remote visitation shall not count
4 toward the required number of visits or duration of visitation that any
5 facility must offer to incarcerated individuals by law or regulation.
6 3. No incarcerated person is to be visited against his or her will by
7 any person.
8 § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after
9 it shall have become a law.
