Loading...
The commissioner of correction may designate any institution or part thereof under the jurisdiction of the commissioner for the safekeeping of persons committed to the department of correction. The commissioner may also designate any institution or part thereof under his or her jurisdiction for the safekeeping of female prisoners only. Officers charged with the transportation of persons committed to the department of correction shall deliver them to the institution or part thereof as may be directed by the commissioner.
The board of estimate by resolution may designate from time to time any building or buildings within the city to be the common jails of such city or of any of the counties therein. The building or buildings so designated shall be such common jails until changed by a like resolution of such board.
The commissioner of correction shall have power to transfer prisoners from any prison or correctional institution under his or her control to any other prison or correctional institution under the jurisdiction of the department.
(Am. 2021 N.Y. Laws Ch. 322, 8/2/2021, eff. 8/2/2021)
The commissioner of correction shall have authority concerning the care and custody of witnesses in criminal proceedings committed to the institutions under the commissioner's charge. Upon the recommendation of the district attorney, the commissioner of correction may transfer such witnesses from one institution under the commissioner's charge to another such institution.
The charter empowers the council as the legislative body of the city of New York to pass laws "for the order, protection and government of persons and property; for the preservation of the public health, comfort, peace and prosperity of the city and its inhabitants." One of the major problems facing New York today, and one which involves almost every one of the above enumerated powers is the narcotics problem. There has been no abatement in the seriously burgeoning scourge of narcotic addiction in New York city despite the nineteen hundred sixty-two White House conference on narcotics and drug abuses and the nineteen hundred sixty-five Gracie Mansion conference on narcotics addiction, the enactment and administration of article nine of the mental hygiene law, and the various legislative expressions of interest and concern on federal, state and city levels. It has also been adequately demonstrated that the incarceration of an addict after an arrest and trial without a specific modality of medical and/or social therapy, even with the involvement of multi-million dollar expense and capital funding, offers no solution to the problem and even the establishment of many so-called "half-way houses" dealing with after-care and the social needs of the drug addict have failed. Sufficient studies have been made to determine that a program of treatment which blocks out the craving, narcotic hunger and euphoria associated with heroin is successful and by giving maintenance dosages of methadone hydrochloride as a complete substitute for heroin, we can start to drive down the rate of narcotics addiction in our city. Between December nineteen hundred sixty-seven and April nineteen hundred sixty-eight, the city prison at Rikers Island, was used for a demonstration project for the use of methadone hydrochloride to combat heroin addiction. This voluntary program involved twelve hard core, intractable, recidivist addicts, with multiple arrest and long conviction records and it achieved remarkable results. One of the conclusions of the final report of this demonstration project reveals that a large number of the four thousand to five thousand addict prisoners would be willing to accept methadone maintenance treatment if it were available. The applicants for interviews in the prison were so numerous that all could not be interviewed. Letters from prisoners still continue to arrive requesting treatment. Despite the demonstrated success of the program, it is being abandoned. The final report reflects the reason for not continuing and expanding the program to realistic dimensions; that reason is the unavailability of funds. This conclusion is difficult to comprehend in view of the multi-million dollar funding of other programs, which have neither revealed any new solutions nor have they demonstrated any degree of achievement. It is not anticipated that this legislation will solve the problem. Hopefully, it will reverse the ever mounting spiral of heroin addiction.
a. Correctional health services, or any entity with which the department of correction or the department of health and mental hygiene contracts to provide healthcare for incarcerated individuals, shall establish a program for the treatment of substance abuse through the use of medication assisted treatment, including the administration of methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone. The program shall be available on a voluntary basis only to such incarcerated individuals as apply, subject to a medical evaluation, before acceptance, of their need for such treatment.
b. The commissioner of correction shall ensure that any housing unit in which transgender, intersex, non-binary, or gender non-conforming individuals are housed has access to the same substance abuse treatment as other incarcerated individuals. Such treatment shall only be given voluntarily and based on the exercise of professional medical judgment of a medical provider following consultation between such medical provider and the incarcerated person.
(Am. L.L. 2019/143, 7/27/2019, eff. 10/25/2019)
a. Definitions. For purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings:
Clinic production. The term "clinic production" means the department's process by which an incarcerated individual is escorted for a medical appointment.
Correctional health services. The term "correctional health services" means any health care entity designated by the city of New York as the agency or agencies responsible for health services for incarcerated individuals in the care and custody of the department. When the responsibility is contractually shared with an outside provider this term shall also apply.
Health care professional. The term "health care professional" means a person who meets qualifications stipulated by their profession and who possesses all credentials and licenses required by New York state law.
Medical appointment. The term "medical appointment" means any patient encounter requested by correctional health services.
Non-production. The term "non-production" means an instance where an incarcerated individual is not escorted for a medical appointment requested by correctional health services.
Production refusal. The term "production refusal" means a refusal by an incarcerated individual to allow the department to produce such incarcerated individual to clinic for a medical appointment. Nothing in this definition, or in this section, is intended to contradict rules governing treatment set forth in chapter 3 of title 40 of the rules of the city of New York.
Sick call. The term "sick call" means the department's process by which an incarcerated individual requests to be seen by a health care professional for the purpose of assessing or treating such incarcerated individual's non-emergency medical complaint.
Walk-out. The term "walk-out" means an instance when an incarcerated individual leaves clinic without being seen by a health care professional for a medical appointment.
b. The department shall retain all documents containing data relating to sick call and clinical production, including handwritten sign-up sheets, for at least three years from the time an incarcerated individual is released from custody of the department, and provide such documents to the board of correction upon request.
c. The department shall provide all housing units with access to sick call on weekdays, excluding holidays, and subject to the exclusions set forth in chapter 3 of title 40 of the rules of the city of New York, or exclusions obtained through a variance pursuant to section 3-13 of such rules.
d. Where individuals are not produced for medical appointments, department personnel shall record the facility, along with the reason for non-production, including but not limited to: "court", "visits", "production refusal", "walkout", "programming", "barbershop," "recreation," and "other". For the category, "other," department personnel shall provide a brief narrative. If the reason for non-production is a refusal or walkout, the department will also record the reason for refusal or walkout, if given. The department shall make such records legible and available to the board of correction at any time. On a monthly basis, the department shall publish an aggregate report on non-production on its website and submit such a report to correctional health services and the city council. This report shall also contain an aggregate count of reasons for production refusal or walkout, if given, and the facility.
e. Where individuals are not produced to a health care professional for a medical appointment, correctional health services will provide to the department the names of such individuals and a specified time-frame of when they should be produced as deemed clinically appropriate. When individuals are not produced within the specified time-frame, correctional health services shall notify the facility's commanding officer, along with a production recommendation based on correctional health's clinical expertise.
(Am. L.L. 2019/132, 7/14/2019, eff. 7/13/2020)
The commissioner of correction shall so far as practicable classify all felons, misdemeanants and violators of local laws under the commissioner's charge, so that the youthful or less hardened offenders shall be segregated from the older or more hardened offenders. The commissioner of correction may set apart one or more of the penal institutions for the custody of such youthful or less hardened offenders, and he or she is empowered to transfer such offenders thereto from any penal institution of the city. The commissioner of correction is empowered to classify the transferred incarcerated individuals, so far as practicable, with regard to age, nature of offense, or other fact, and to separate or group such offenders according to such classification.
(Am. 2021 N.Y. Laws Ch. 322, 8/2/2021, eff. 8/2/2021)
Loading...