BILL NUMBER:S3272

TITLE OF BILL:

An act
to amend the criminal procedure law and the correction law, in relation
to the delivery of sentence and commitment documents

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 of the bill would make a technical correction to Criminal
Procedure Law § 380.60 to reflect the correct title of the commitment
document that accompanies an offender to a correctional institution.

Sections 2 and 4 of the bill would add a new Criminal Procedure Law .
380.65 and amend Correction Law §601(a) to clarify that the sentence
and commitment or certificate of conviction, as well as any order
of protection, must accompany an offender to a state or local
correctional institution or to an OCFS facility when he or she
commences service of a sentence of imprisonment.

Section 3 of the bill would make a technical amendment to Criminal
Procedure Law § 380.70 to clarify that it is only the sentencing
minutes, and not the certificate of conviction or order of
protection, that must be delivered to the institution where the
defendant is confined within 30 days after the imposition of sentence.
              

Section 5 of the bill sets forth the effective date:

EXISTING LAW:

Criminal Procedure Law § 380.60 now provides that in all cases other
than when a sentence of death is pronounced, a certificate of
conviction showing the sentence pronounced by the court, or a
certified copy thereof, constitutes the authority for execution of
sentence and serves as the order of commitment. Criminal Procedure
Law § 380.70 requires a court to deliver sentencing minutes to a
correctional facility 30 days after imposing a sentence of
imprisonment. It also requites a certificate of conviction and order
of protection to be delivered to the facility within 30 days from
the date sentence was imposed. However, Correction Law § 601 (a)
requires that whenever an inmate is
delivered to a state facility, the transporting officer must also
deliver a certified copy of the sentence, a certificate of conviction
and a copy of any order or temporary order of protection.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2009-10:  S.5517.A.7951 - Referred to Senate Codes/Assembly Codes

STATEMENT IN SUPPORT:

This bill would correct and clarify inconsistent and ambiguous
provisions in the Criminal Procedure Law and the Correction Law
pertaining to the timing of the sentencing court's obligation to
provide state and local correctional facilities and OCFS facilities


with commitment documents, orders of protection and sentencing
minutes. It also would make technical corrections to the statutes to
reflect the proper name of the commitment documents that are used
today.

First, Criminal Procedure Law § 380.60 identifies a "certificate of
conviction" as the legal document that confers the authority for the
execution of sentence and serves as the order of commitment. In
actuality, the technical title of the commitment document is a
"sentence and commitment." As such, it is appropriate that this
section of law, as well as a comparable provision in Correction Law
§ 601(a), be amended to include the title of the document that is
routinely used.

Second, Criminal Procedure Law § 380.70 provides that in any case
where a person receives either a determinate or indeterminate
sentence of imprisonment, the sentencing minutes must be transcribed
and separately sent to the institution to which the defendant has
been delivered within 30 days of the pronouncement of sentence.

As part of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1995, the Legislature
determined that the commitment document that accompanies an offender
to his or her place of incarceration should contain greater
specificity with regard to the crime of commitment. Specifically, it
was determined that the commitment should also indicate, to the
extent applicable, the subdivision, paragraph and subparagraph of the
penal law or other statute under which the defendant was convicted.
However, when the Legislature adopted this new requirement in 1995,
the provision was mistakenly inserted into section 380.70, the same
section of law that deals with sentencing minutes. This creates the
misimpression that a commitment, like the sentencing minutes, may be
separately delivered to the facility, even though Correction Law
601(a) and Criminal Procedure Law § 380.60 make it clear that the
commitment document must accompany the defendant when he or she is
delivered to the institution to commence serving his or her sentence
of imprisonment.
This error was continued when the law was subsequently expanded to
require orders of protection to be delivered to the institution with
a defendant.

The new section of law that explicitly describes the documents that
must accompany a defendant when he or she is delivered to an
institution to commence serving
a sentence of imprisonment will clarify the confusion that is caused
by the existing, inconsistent statutory language. This will help to
ensure that state and local correctional facilities have the
necessary documentation when receiving offenders into their custody,
including documents providing such basic information as the term
of the inmate's sentence and whether multiple sentences run
consecutively or concurrently.

At the same time, maintaining a separate section of law requiring that
courts subsequently send the sentencing minutes to the facility
should help to clarify the courts' continuing obligations after a
defendant has been sentenced. These minutes assist DOCS and the
Division of Parole with programming and release decisions. They
provide additional background about the crime, any recommendations by


the judge and any statements by victims. By separating these
provisions, it will clarify that the sentence and commitment
documents are sent to the facility with the inmate, and that the
sentence minutes must be sent later, helping to ensure that these
critically important documents will become part of an inmate's
correctional file.

BUDGET IMPLICATIONS:

EFFECTIVE DATE:

This bill would take effect on September 1, 2011, with provisions.