Provides electronic mail services to an incarcerated individual which allows an incarcerated individual to send up to ten electronic mail letters a day at no charge.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
10179
IN ASSEMBLY
March 24, 2020
___________
Introduced by M. of A. WEPRIN -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Correction
AN ACT to amend the correction law, in relation to providing electronic
mail services to an incarcerated individual
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 623 of the correction law, as added by chapter 240
2 of the laws of 2007, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 623. [Inmate] Incarcerated individual telephone and electronic mail
4 services. 1. Telephone and electronic mail services contracts for
5 [inmates] incarcerated individuals in state correctional facilities
6 shall be subject to the procurement provisions as set forth in article
7 eleven of the state finance law provided, however, that when determining
8 the best value of such telephone and electronic mail service, the lowest
9 possible cost to the telephone and electronic mail user shall be empha-
10 sized.
11 2. a. The department shall make available either a "prepaid" or
12 "collect call" system, or a combination thereof, for telephone service.
13 Under the "prepaid" system, funds may be deposited into an account in
14 order to pay for station-to-station calls, provided that nothing in this
15 subdivision shall require the department to provide or administer a
16 prepaid system. Under a "collect call" system, call recipients are
17 billed for the cost of an accepted telephone call initiated by an
18 [inmate] incarcerated individual. Under such "collect call" system, the
19 provider of [inmate] incarcerated individual telephone service, as an
20 additional means of payment, must permit the recipient of [inmate]
21 incarcerated individual calls to establish an account with such provider
22 in order to deposit funds to pay for such collect calls in advance.
23 b. The department shall make available a "prepaid" system for elec-
24 tronic mail service. Under the "prepaid" system, funds may be deposited
25 into an account in order to pay for additional electronic mail pursuant
26 to subdivision three of this section, provided that nothing in this
27 subdivision shall require the department to provide or administer a
28 prepaid system.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD15153-02-0
A. 10179 2
1 3. The department shall provide secure electronic mail services to
2 individuals in its custody. An incarcerated individual may send up to
3 ten electronic mail letters a day at no charge. Additional electronic
4 mail letters sent by such incarcerated individual may incur a charge of
5 no more than twenty-five cents per electronic mail letter on a prepaid
6 account established pursuant to paragraph b of subdivision two of this
7 section. No person shall be charged for sending a secure electronic
8 mail letter to an incarcerated individual.
9 4. The department shall not accept or receive revenue in excess of its
10 reasonable operating cost for establishing and administering such tele-
11 phone and electronic mail system services as provided in subdivisions
12 one, two and [two] three of this section.
13 [4.] 5. The department shall establish rules and regulations or
14 departmental procedures to ensure that any [inmate] incarcerated indi-
15 vidual phone call and electronic mail system established by this section
16 provides reasonable security measures to preserve the safety and securi-
17 ty of each correctional facility, all staff and all persons outside a
18 facility who may receive [inmate] incarcerated individual phone calls or
19 electronic mail letters.
20 § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after
21 it shall have become a law.