Relates to the establishment of an inmate visitation program, which gives inmates 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
________________________________________________________________________
2698
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 28, 2019
___________
Introduced by Sen. SEPULVEDA -- 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 the establishment of
an inmate visitation 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. Inmate visitation program. State and local correctional
4 facilities shall provide inmate visitation programs which give inmates
5 opportunities for personal contact with relatives, friends, clergy,
6 volunteers and other persons to promote better institutional adjustment
7 and better community adjustment upon release. Such program shall
8 include, but not be limited to, (a) visiting hours that are reasonably
9 likely to accommodate persons traveling from within the state, (b)
10 visits of sufficient duration so that visitors and inmates will be able
11 to maintain relationship bonds, and (c) a published overcrowding policy
12 that is equitable with due consideration to the distance traveled by the
13 visitor. Video visitation may supplement, but shall not take the place
14 of, in-person visitation. No inmate is to be visited against his or her
15 will by any person.
16 § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after
17 it shall have become a law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD08552-01-9
