LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION urging the New York State Department of
Corrections and Community Supervision to provide the least restrictive
environments for women prisoners so they can remain in close proximity
to their families and children during their stay in state prison

WHEREAS, This Legislative Body hereby finds in order to improve the
outcomes for women incarcerated in New York State prisons and in order
to provide for a more stable family environment for the children of
incarcerated mothers, there must be a clear demonstration by government
bureaucracies involved with correctional services to provide the least
restrictive environments for women prisoners so they can remain in close
proximity to their families and children during their stay in state
prison; and
WHEREAS, It is a well understood factor by health care professionals
and social workers that the ability of incarcerated mothers to maintain
close and constant contact with their family and children is a contrib-
uting factor to rehabilitation and better re-integation into society
once their sentence is served; and
WHEREAS, Currently, over 83 percent of women in New York State prisons
were convicted of non-violent offenses, yet their sentences incorporate
a penalty not quantified in law but serves as an additional punishment
by placing the majority of these women in prison facilities an unneces-
sarily long distance away from their families and children; and
WHEREAS, Over 5,200 children from New York State have mothers in pris-
on; for many, seeing their mothers and scheduling visitations is a hard-
ship; they are forced to travel as far as eight hour, one-way trips to
see their mothers; for most, this is an expense and a hardship that
rests on elderly family members and innocent children; and
WHEREAS, It has been estimated that over 90 percent of incarcerated
women in New York have been the victims of sexual and/or physical abuse
at some point in their lives; another 45 percent have been diagnosed
with mental illness, yet they are sentenced to facilities far from their
families and in a manner that is inconsistent with what research and
mental health care professionals tell us which is: being close to family
and having access to family members is a factor in recovery from mental
illness and a contributor to better managing their illness; and
WHEREAS, It is clear women prisoners must be housed in correctional
facilities as close to their homes as possible and as administratively
permissible that in order to better meet the rehabilitation needs of
incarcerated mothers and to better meet the emotional and psychological
needs of their children; and
WHEREAS, The continued costs to society of continuing to house women
prisoners long distances from their families and children can be reduced
significantly by better managing the placement of women prisoners at
time of sentence and by the New York State Department of Corrections and
Community Supervision; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
urge the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Super-
vision to provide the least restrictive environments for women prisoners
so they can remain in close proximity to their families and children
during their stay in state prison; and be it further
RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran-
smitted to the New York State Department of Corrections and Community
Supervision.