Senate Bill S4614

2009-2010 Legislative Session

Mandates reform of Rikers Island correctional facilities and orderly reduction of prisoner population

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Archive: Last Bill Status - Stricken

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

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Date of Action	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
May 19, 2009	recommit, enacting clause stricken
Apr 24, 2009	referred to crime victims, crime and correction

co-Sponsors

2009-S4614 (ACTIVE) - Details

Law Section:: Correction Law
Laws Affected:: Add §45-a, Cor L

2009-S4614 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Prohibits new correctional facilities on Rikers Island in NYC from increasing prisoner capacity in excess of maximum established on 7/1/87; requires board of correction and NYC department of correction to develop plan for orderly reduction of Rikers Island prisoner population by transferring of prisoners from Rikers Island to smaller new or renovated correctional facilities by 1/1/14; provides that any municipal official not complying herewith shall be issued a citation.

2009-S4614 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S4614

 TITLE OF BILL :
An act to amend the correction law, in relation to reform of urban
correctional facilities


 PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL :
This bill, sets forth legislative findings that smaller correctional
facilities are more secure and better able to serve their public
purpose than larger, overcrowded facilities. The bill accordingly
limits the current population on Rikers Island in the City of New York
to its present numbers, and requires the State Commission of
Correction to develop a plan to reduce the population of Rikers Island
to the population in residence on January 1, 1970.

 PROVISIONS :
Section 1 of the bill is a statement of legislative intent, finding
that the size of local correctional facilities plays an important role
in the safety and security of such facilities, the services which can
be provided by such facilities and the cost of providing them. The
statement continues to take notice of the conditions of overcrowding
which exist in the various correctional facilities run by the City of
New York on Rikers Island. Since it would be prohibitively expensive
to upgrade these facilities, the bill announces a legislative intent
to cap the current population of Rikers Island and to direct the State

Commission of Correction to develop a plan to reduce the population in
these facilities.

Section 2 of the bill adds a new section 45-a to the Correction Law,
which prohibits the State Commission of Correction from approving any
plans or specifications for new construction on Rikers Island, and
from increasing or waiving the maximum prisoners capacity, or taking
another action which would permit the number of prisoners in Rikers
Island facilities from exceeding the number in residence on July 1st,
1983.  Section 45-a further provides that the Commission shall
establish a plan for the orderly reduction of inmate space on Rikers
Island, in favor of smaller new or renovated correctional facilities
in other parts of the city. Subject to the availability of such
alternative placements, the plan is to provide for a reduction by 1992
to the population levels in existence in 1970.

 JUSTIFICATION :
The various local correctional facilities on Rikers Island are
currently under population caps imposed by federal judges due to
overcrowding, poor sanitation, and other facility shortcomings. The
current population of all facilities on Rikers Island is over 8,000
inmates many of whom are housed in temporary quarters in areas never
designed or intended as detention space. The NYC Commissioner of
Correction has noted that "the age and decrepit condition" of the
House of Detention for Men on Rikers Island make it difficult for the
city to meet mandated standards, and the City of New York has also
found that it would be prohibitively expensive to upgrade this
facility. The other correctional and detention facilities on Rikers
Island share this plight.

Large, overcrowded facilities such as those on Rikers Island do not
preserve the safety of inmates, correctional officers, or the public,
and they do not carry out the public purposes for which they operate.
Neither humane housing of those which awaiting trial on criminal
charges nor rehabilitation of sentenced misdemeanants is achievable in
these facilities. These problems are compounded by the enormous costs
of transportation caused by the geographic remoteness of Rikers Island
from courts and other processing points.


The City of New York has already launched an ambitious program of
capital construction of correctional space. This legislation would
assist this program by encouraging the transfer of inmates currently
housed on Rikers Island to new or renovated facilities, by involving
the State Commission of Correction in the planning process for such
facilities at an earlier date, and by preventing the expenditure of
public funds on correctional facilities on Rikers Island whose
rehabilitation is not cost-effective.

 PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :
1989-08-Referred to Crime and Correction Committee.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :
None.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
180th day after enactment.

2009-S4614 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                            
                    S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________

                                  4614

                       2009-2010 Regular Sessions

                            I N  S E N A T E

                             April 24, 2009
                               ___________

Introduced by Sens. ONORATO, HASSELL-THOMPSON, PARKER, SAMPSON, THOMPSON
  -- 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 reform of urban
  correctional facilities

  THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  Section  1.  Statement  of  legislative intent. The legislature hereby
finds and declares:
  1. The size of local correctional facilities can  have  a  substantial
impact  on  the living and working conditions present in such facilities
and their ability to serve their public purposes. Smaller, less  crowded
local  correctional  facilities are more easily made secure, and thereby
promote the safety of inmates, correctional  officers  and  the  public.
Smaller  facilities  represent  a  more  humane  environment for persons
temporarily detained pending the disposition of  criminal  charges,  and
enhance  the  rehabilitation  of  persons  convicted  of misdemeanors or
violations of  probation  or  parole.  Such  facilities,  geographically
dispersed  throughout an urban area, provide easier access to courts and
other processing points, thereby reducing transportation costs which are
paid from public funds, and easier visitor access to facilities.
  2. Large, overcrowded local correctional facilities  do  not  preserve
the  public  safety  or  serve  the  public  purposes for which they are
intended. In particular, the various correctional facilities located  on
Rikers  Island  in  the  city of New York have been found by the federal
courts to be overcrowded, unsanitary, and unsafe to inmates, correction-
al officers and the public. The city of New  York  has  stated  that  it
would be prohibitively expensive to upgrade these facilities.
  3. Therefore, it is the intent of this legislature that no new capaci-
ty for housing inmates be added to the various local correctional facil-
ities  on  Rikers  Island,  and  that the state commission of correction

 EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                      [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                           LBD03697-01-9

S. 4614                             2

develop a plan to reduce the population in these facilities and  replace
these  facilities  with  smaller local correctional facilities geograph-
ically dispersed throughout the urban area.
  S  2.  The  correction  law is amended by adding a new section 45-a to
read as follows:
  S 45-A. REFORM OF URBAN CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES. 1.    NOTWITHSTANDING
ANY  OTHER  PROVISION OF LAW, THE COMMISSION SHALL NOT APPROVE ANY PLANS
OR  SPECIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  CONSTRUCTION  OF  CORRECTIONAL  FACILITIES
LOCATED  ON RIKERS ISLAND IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK, NOR SHALL THE COMMIS-
SION INCREASE OR WAIVE THE MAXIMUM PRISONER CAPACITY FOR ANY SUCH EXIST-
ING FACILITY SO LOCATED OR TAKE ANY OTHER ACTION WHICH WOULD PERMIT  THE
NUMBER  OF PRISONERS IN ANY SUCH FACILITY TO EXCEED THE MAXIMUM PRISONER
CAPACITY WHICH THE COMMISSION ESTABLISHED FOR SUCH  FACILITY  AND  WHICH
WAS IN EFFECT ON JULY FIRST, NINETEEN HUNDRED EIGHTY-SEVEN.
  2.  IN CONSULTATION WITH THE BOARD OF CORRECTION AND THE DEPARTMENT OF
CORRECTION OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, THE  COMMISSION  SHALL  AS  SOON  AS
FEASIBLE  DEVELOP  A PLAN FOR THE ORDERLY REDUCTION IN THE POPULATION OF
THE VARIOUS FACILITIES ON RIKERS ISLAND. THE PLAN SHALL PROVIDE FOR  THE
TRANSFER  OF  SUCH  POPULATION  TO SMALLER NEW OR RENOVATED CORRECTIONAL
FACILITIES.  SUBJECT TO THE AVAILABILITY OF  SUCH  SMALLER  CORRECTIONAL
FACILITIES, THE PLAN SHALL BE DESIGNED TO RESULT IN THE REDUCTION IN THE
POPULATION  OF  THE VARIOUS CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES ON RIKERS ISLAND, ON
OR BEFORE THE FIRST DAY OF JANUARY, TWO THOUSAND FOURTEEN, TO THE  POPU-
LATION  PRESENT  IN  SUCH  FACILITIES ON JANUARY FIRST, NINETEEN HUNDRED
SEVENTY.
  3. UPON THE FAILURE OF ANY MUNICIPAL OFFICIAL TO CLOSE ANY CORRECTION-
AL FACILITY BY THE DATE SPECIFIED IN  THE  PLAN  DEVELOPED  PURSUANT  TO
SUBDIVISION TWO OF THIS SECTION, THE COMMISSION SHALL PROCEED TO ISSUE A
CITATION  PURSUANT  TO  SUBDIVISION  EIGHT OF SECTION FORTY-FIVE OF THIS
ARTICLE.
  S 3.  This act shall take effect on  the  one  hundred  eightieth  day
after it shall have become a law.

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Senate Bill S4614

Sponsored By

Archive: Last Bill Status - Stricken

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co-Sponsors

2009-S4614 (ACTIVE) - Details

2009-S4614 (ACTIVE) - Summary

2009-S4614 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

2009-S4614 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

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Sponsored By

George Onorato

Archive: Last Bill Status - Stricken

Actions

co-Sponsors

Ruth Hassell-Thompson

Kevin S. Parker

John L. Sampson

Antoine M. Thompson

2009-S4614 (ACTIVE) - Details

2009-S4614 (ACTIVE) - Summary

2009-S4614 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

2009-S4614 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

Comments