BILL NUMBER: S1368

SPONSOR: RITCHIE
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the correction law, in relation to parole violators

 
PURPOSE:

To require parole violators to be transferred to a state correctional
facility after 10 business days in a local correctional facility.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends the Correction Law by adding a new section 23-a provid-
ing that, except for in cities with a population over one million, after
a period of ten business days in a local correctional facility those
individuals in violation of their parole be heard by the court and
either transferred to a state facility at a cost of the Department of
Correctional and Community Supervision, granted an extension by the
local court, or released by the local court. Section 2 is the effective
              

date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

When incarcerated persons are released on parole from state facilities,
violators should be punished. Currently, those who violate their parole
are often held at local facilities while appeals and extensions on hear-
ing the violation are granted by the court. The defendant must appear
before the court within 10 business days of the court's notice to
appear. The time the violator spends in the local correctional facility
is credited to their sentence and can last for the sentence's duration.

This bill will give the court the option to grant an extension up to 20
days for the defendant's stay at the local correctional facility.  Under
the current law, the parole violator is transferred by Department of
Correctional and Community Supervision (DOCCS) to a state facility. This
bill permits the parole violator to stay at the local correction facili-
ty, but requires DOCCS to reimburse the local facility for the cost of
the temporary detainment of the parole violator.

With overcrowding issues in local facilities at significant cost to the
localities, it is important to implement policies that will require the
state to be responsible for detaining violators of the parole they set.
It is wrong for the localities to berthed cost of detaining the state's
prisoners who have been released on parole.

 
HISTORY:

2017-2018: S.744/A.305

 
FISCAL IMPACT:

Significant cost savings will be realized by the counties while the
State Department of Correctional and Community Supervision will take on
additional costs. Overall, more efficiency and cost savings will be
realized as it is generally more expensive to house prisoners at county
correctional facilities than at state facilities.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the 120th day after it shall have become
law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any
rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of this act on its
effective date is authorized to be made on or before such date.