BILL NUMBER: S1850

SPONSOR: SEPULVEDA
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the correction law, in relation to personal phone calls
for inmates in certain circumstances

 
PURPOSE:

To allow state prison inmates entering solitary confinement in special
housing units (SHU) and in residential mental health treatment units to
make a telephone call upon admission into SHU and at least once a week
thereafter.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section I of the bill amends subdivision six of section 137 of the
correction law to allow an inmate to make a telephone call upon his or
her admission into solitary confinement, keeplock, a residential mental
health treatment program and administrative segregation and at least
              

once per week thereafter.

Section II sets forth the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

There are approximately 4,000 inmates confined to special housing units
(SHU) within the state prison system as a result of disciplinary sanc-
tions. Currently, inmates being held in SHU on such sanctions are
confined to a cell for 23 hours per day, with an hour of outdoor recre-
ation in a fenced-in pen or cage, and lose other privileges including
access to telephone calls, personal property, packages and commissary.

SHU inmates are limited to one visit per week or may be prohibited from
receiving any visits at all. For a sanction which exceeds six months,
inmates are often transferred to a dedicated SHU facility in either
Chemung or Franklin counties. Since these facilities are far from the
urban and suburban communities where most inmates' families reside,
transfers often result in few, or no, visits during an inmate's SHU
confinement. Visits have become even less frequent since the elimination
of the free bus program from the state budget.

The impact of solitary confinement on the family of an inmate is a
significant burden in its own right. A parent, spouse or child of the
inmate often has no idea of what has happened to his or her loved one
when telephone calls suddenly cease.

While an inmate has a constitutional right to correspondence, there are
times when postage, paper and writing implements are not present, and
correspondence to and from the correctional facility may be delayed or
unreliable. Permitting inmates to make telephone calls,upop admission
into SHU and at weekly intervals ensures that family members'are not
left wondering what has happened to their loved ones.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2016: S985 Montgomery/A4620 Rozic. Passed Assembly.

2018: S8646 Sepulveda/A1208 Rozic. Referred to Crime Victims, Crime and
Correction.

 
FISCAL IMPACT ON THE STATE:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.