Permits the use of portable electronic devices for making phone calls as part of the telephone service system made available to incarcerated individuals.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
9677
IN ASSEMBLY
April 3, 2024
___________
Introduced by M. of A. DILAN -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Correction
AN ACT to amend the correction law, in relation to permitting the use of
portable electronic devices for making phone calls by incarcerated
individuals
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 2 of section 623 of the correction law, as
2 amended by chapter 322 of the laws of 2021, is amended to read as
3 follows:
4 2. The department shall make available either a "prepaid" or "collect
5 call" system, or a combination thereof, for telephone service. Under the
6 "prepaid" system, funds may be deposited into an account in order to pay
7 for station-to-station calls, provided that nothing in this subdivision
8 shall require the department to provide or administer a prepaid system.
9 Under a "collect call" system, call recipients are billed for the cost
10 of an accepted telephone call initiated by an incarcerated individual.
11 Under such "collect call" system, the provider of incarcerated individ-
12 ual telephone service, as an additional means of payment, must permit
13 the recipient of incarcerated individual calls to establish an account
14 with such provider in order to deposit funds to pay for such collect
15 calls in advance. The department shall include as part of its telephone
16 service system the ability to make wireless calls utilizing portable
17 tablet devices or other portable electronic devices. Such wireless
18 device calls shall not substitute for regular phone call availability.
19 The department shall make a reasonable effort to provide these wireless
20 calls free of charge. Such wireless calls shall not be subject to high-
21 er costs than calls placed from telephones. The department shall have
22 the same ability to impose limitations on wireless calls for incarcerat-
23 ed individuals as calls placed from telephones.
24 § 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
25 have become a law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD15003-02-4
