Requires the guidelines for determining the minimum period of imprisonment to be served prior to parole consideration to include any history of violence or abuse directed at the sentenced person by the victim of the offense.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1885
2011-2012 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 13, 2011
___________
Introduced by Sens. OPPENHEIMER, DIAZ, SAMPSON -- 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 executive law, in relation to including certain
information regarding abuse by victims of crime in determination of
minimum period of incarceration
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph (a) of subdivision 1 of section 259-i of the
2 executive law, as added by chapter 904 of the laws of 1977, is amended
3 to read as follows:
4 (a) In any case where a person is received in an institution under the
5 jurisdiction of the department of correctional services with an indeter-
6 minate sentence, and the court has not fixed a minimum period of impri-
7 sonment, the board shall cause to be brought before one or more members
8 in accordance with the rules of the board within one hundred twenty days
9 from the date on which such person is received in an institution under
10 the jurisdiction of the department of correctional services pursuant to
11 such sentence or as soon thereafter as practicable, all information with
12 regard to such persons referred to in subdivision three of section two
13 hundred fifty-nine-c of this article. The member or members receiving
14 such information shall study the same and shall personally interview the
15 sentenced person. Upon conclusion of the interview, he shall determine
16 the minimum period of imprisonment to be served prior to parole consid-
17 eration in accordance with the guidelines adopted pursuant to subdivi-
18 sion four of section two hundred fifty-nine-c of this article. Such
19 guidelines shall include (i) the seriousness of the offense with due
20 consideration to the type of sentence, length of sentence and recommen-
21 dations of the sentencing court, the district attorney, the attorney for
22 the inmate, the pre-sentence probation report as well as consideration
23 of any mitigating and aggravating factors, including a history of
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06210-01-1
S. 1885 2
1 violence or abuse directed at the sentenced person by the victim of the
2 offense, and activities following arrest and prior to confinement; and
3 (ii) prior criminal record, including the nature and pattern of
4 offenses, adjustment to any previous probation or parole supervision and
5 institutional confinement. Such determination shall have the same force
6 and effect as a minimum period fixed by a court, except that the board
7 may provide by rule for the making of subsequent determinations reducing
8 such minimum period which shall not be reduced to less than one year.
9 Notification of such determination and of any subsequent determinations
10 and of the reasons therefor shall be furnished in writing to the
11 sentenced person and to the person in charge of the institution as soon
12 as practicable. Such reasons shall be given in detail and not in conclu-
13 sory terms.
14 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
