Senate Bill S5522

2011-2012 Legislative Session

Requires the department of corrections and community supervision to place female inmates at correctional institutions and facilities closest to their home

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Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Crime Victims, Crime And Correction Committee

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
Jan 04, 2012	referred to crime victims, crime and correction
May 27, 2011	referred to crime victims, crime and correction

co-Sponsors

2011-S5522 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Assembly Version of this Bill:: A7593
Current Committee:: Senate Crime Victims, Crime And Correction
Law Section:: Correction Law
Laws Affected:: Amd §158, Cor L

2011-S5522 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Requires the department of corrections and community supervision to place female inmates at correctional institutions and facilities closest to their home.

2011-S5522 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                BILL NUMBER:S5522

TITLE OF BILL:
An act
to amend the correction law, in relation to requiring the department of
corrections and community supervision to place female inmates at
correctional institutions and facilities closest to their home

PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF THE BILL:
Requires the department of
correctional and community supervision to place female inmates at
correctional institutions and facilities closest to their home if
they have children and/or have a mental illness.

SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1: The legislation intent; the
legislation should provide the least restricted environment for women
in prisoners so they can remain in close proximity to their families
and children during their stay in state prison in order to reduce
strains on family and children and, when, applicable, increase family
contact for women prisoners who suffer from mental illness.

Section 2: Section 158 of the correctional law, as added by chapter
788 of the law of 1968 is amended to read as follows; notwithstanding
the provisions of section 158, the commissioner shall designate as a
place of confinement of a female prisoner the correctional

institution which is located in closest proximity to the female
prisoner's home or the home of their children.

Section 3: The commissioner of the department of corrections and
community supervision is authorized and directed to implement and
finalize a process to relocate female prisoners currently in the
custody to Correctional institutions/facilities which are located in
the closest proximity to female prisoner's home or home of her
children.

Section 4: The commissioner of the department of corrections and
community supervision shall collect and maintain data on each
prisoner's marital status, number of children and status of child
while parent with DOGS.

JUSTIFICATION:
Currently there are over 2,200 women in New York State
correctional facilities, the vast majority have children and over 40%
suffer from mental illness.

New York must begin, this year, the process of incarcerating women
prisoner's in facilities closest to their community of origin because
almost 73% of New York's incarcerated women are parents. Currently
the majority are being housed in prisons that are almost an 8 hour
drive from their children and families. The current process of

housing these women is anti-family, anti-children, overwhelmingly
impacts minority women and hinders recovery from mental illness which
is prevalent in prisons.

Here are the facts according to the Correctional Association of New
York:

* Over 83% of women sent to New York's prisons in 2008 were convicted
of non-violent offenses;

* More than 77% of women under state custody for a drug offense are
women of color;

* Almost 68% of the state's female inmates are women of color: more
than 45% are African American and almost 20% are Latina;

* About 55% of women under state custody are from New York City and
its suburbs. The majority are housed in prisons up to 8 hour drives
from their homes and families;

* Nearly 41% are incarcerated at Albion Correctional Facility, about
eight hours away from Manhattan.

* An estimated eight in 10 women in have experienced severe abuse as
children and an estimated nine in 10 have endured physical or sexual
violence in their lifetimes.

* As of January 2007, more than 42% of women in New York's prisons had
been diagnosed with a serious mental illness.

* Almost 80,000 children have a parent in New York's prisons,
including nearly 5,240 children with an incarcerated mother.

* Nearly 54% of women prisoners do not have a high school diploma.

* More than 35% of women under state custody read at an 8th grade
level or below.

* New York State spends more than 52.7 billion annually on
corrections. More than 31,000 people work for the state prison system.

PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New Bill.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT:
None. In fact this
legislation will help reduce social service and mental hygiene costs
for New York based on the fact that housing women prisoners close to
their homes and families help in the recovery of mental illness, help
maintain strong family bond with their children, and reduce the time
many children are relocated to foster homes because incarcerated
women prisoner's have a recidivism rate of less than 30%. Currently

it costs New York State over $37,000 per year to place a child in
foster care and close to $44,000 to house inmates. Creating
incentives for good behavior for early release for family
reunification and increasing recovery rates from mental illness by
housing inmates close to supporting families is a huge cost savings
that this legislation will create. The data collection required for
each inmate is a matter of adding a few questions to list of
information already required by DOCS.

EFFECTIVE DATE:;
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after
it shall have become a law, provided, however, that effective
immediately, the addition and/or repeal of any rule or regulation
necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective date
are authorized and directed to be made and completed on or before
such effective date.

2011-S5522 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

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

                                  5522

                       2011-2012 Regular Sessions

                            I N  S E N A T E

                              May 27, 2011
                               ___________

Introduced  by  Sen.  MONTGOMERY  -- 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 requiring the depart-
  ment  of corrections and community supervision to place female inmates
  at correctional institutions and facilities closest to their home

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

  Section  1.  Legislative  intent. The legislature hereby finds that in
order to improve the outcomes for women incarcerated in New  York  state
prisons  and  that in order to provide for a more stable family environ-
ment 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 prison-
ers so that they can remain in close proximity  to  their  families  and
children during their stay in state prison.
  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 contributing factor
to rehabilitation and better  re-integration  into  society  once  their
sentence is served.
  Currently,  over eighty-three percent of women in New York state pris-
ons were convicted of non-violent offenses. Yet their sentences incorpo-
rate a penalty not quantified in law but serves as an additional punish-
ment by placing the majority of these  women  in  prison  facilities  an
unnecessarily long distance away from their families and children
  Over five thousand two hundred New York children have mothers in pris-
on.    For  many  of these children, seeing their mothers and scheduling
visitations is a hardship. They are forced to travel  as  far  as  eight
hour,  one-way  trips  to see their mothers. For most this is an expense

 EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                      [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                           LBD11174-02-1

S. 5522                             2

and a hardship that rests on elderly family members and  innocent  chil-
dren.
  It  has  been estimated that over ninety percent of incarcerated women
in New York have been the victims of sexual  and/or  physical  abuse  at
some  point  in their lives.  Another forty-five percent have been diag-
nosed 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: That 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.
  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. 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  prison-
ers  at  time  of  sentence  and  by  the  New  York state department of
corrections and community supervision.
  S 2. Section 158 of the correction law, as added by chapter 788 of the
laws of 1968, is amended to read as follows:
  S 158. Designation of Place of Confinement. 1.  The  commissioner  may
designate  as  a place of confinement of a prisoner any available, suit-
able and appropriate correctional institution or facility whether  main-
tained  by  the  city,  state  or federal government and may at any time
transfer a prisoner from one place of confinement to another. Where such
designation or transfer is to either a  state  or  federal  correctional
institution  or  facility,  it shall be subject to the prior approval of
the appropriate person or agency having jurisdiction  and  control  over
such facility and upon such terms and conditions as such person or agen-
cy deems appropriate.
  2.  NOTWITHSTANDING THE PROVISIONS OF SUBDIVISION ONE OF THIS SECTION,
THE  COMMISSIONER  SHALL DESIGNATE AS A PLACE OF CONFINEMENT OF A FEMALE
PRISONER, WHO HAS CHILDREN AND/OR HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED AS HAVING A MENTAL
ILLNESS AS DEFINED IN SECTION FOUR HUNDRED OF THIS CHAPTER, THE  CORREC-
TIONAL  INSTITUTION OR FACILITY WHICH IS LOCATED IN CLOSEST PROXIMITY TO
THE FEMALE PRISONER'S HOME OR TO THE HOME OF HER CHILDREN, PROVIDED THAT
SUCH CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION OR FACILITY IS SUITABLE AND APPROPRIATE AS
DETERMINED BY THE COMMISSIONER, UNLESS SUCH  FEMALE  PRISONER  HAS  BEEN
IDENTIFIED  AS  HAVING  A MENTAL ILLNESS AND THE COMMISSIONER DEEMS THAT
SUCH PLACEMENT WOULD POSE A THREAT TO THE FAMILY AND/OR CHILDREN OF SUCH
FEMALE PRISONER.
  S 3. The commissioner of the department of corrections  and  community
supervision is authorized and directed to implement and finalize a proc-
ess to relocate female prisoners currently in the custody of the depart-
ment  of  corrections  and  community supervision to correctional insti-
tutions and facilities which are located in the closest proximity to the
female prisoner's home or the home of her children, within  nine  months
from the effective date of this section.
  S  4.  The commissioner of the department of corrections and community
supervision shall collect and maintain the following data from all pris-
oners:
  1. marital status; and
  2. whether such prisoner has children, and if so, who has  custody  of
such children.

S. 5522                             3

  S  5.  This  act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
have become a law, provided, however, that  effective  immediately,  the
addition  and/or  repeal  of  any  rule  or regulation necessary for the
implementation of this act on its  effective  date  are  authorized  and
directed to be made and completed on or before such effective date.

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Senate Bill S5522

Sponsored By

Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Crime Victims, Crime And Correction Committee

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co-Sponsors

2011-S5522 (ACTIVE) - Details

2011-S5522 (ACTIVE) - Summary

2011-S5522 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

2011-S5522 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

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Sponsored By

Velmanette Montgomery

Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Crime Victims, Crime And Correction Committee

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co-Sponsors

Kevin S. Parker

Bill Perkins

2011-S5522 (ACTIVE) - Details

2011-S5522 (ACTIVE) - Summary

2011-S5522 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

2011-S5522 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

Comments