§ 112. Powers and duties of commissioner relating to correctional
facilities and community supervision. 1. The commissioner of corrections
and community supervision shall have the superintendence, management and
control of the correctional facilities in the department and of the
incarcerated individuals confined therein, and of all matters relating
to the government, discipline, policing, contracts and fiscal concerns
thereof. He or she shall have the power and it shall be his or her duty
to inquire into all matters connected with said correctional facilities.
He or she shall make such rules and regulations, not in conflict with
the statutes of this state, for the government of the officers and other
employees of the department assigned to said facilities, and in regard
to the duties to be performed by them, and for the government and
discipline of each correctional facility, as he or she may deem proper,
and shall cause such rules and regulations to be recorded by the
superintendent of the facility, and a copy thereof to be furnished to
each employee assigned to the facility. He or she shall also prescribe a
system of accounts and records to be kept at each correctional facility,
which system shall be uniform at all of said facilities, and he or she
shall also make rules and regulations for a record of photographs and
other means of identifying each incarcerated individual received into
said facilities. He or she shall appoint and remove, subject to the
civil service law, subordinate officers and other employees of the
department who are assigned to correctional facilities.

2. The commissioner shall have the management and control of persons
released on community supervision and of all matters relating to such
persons' effective reentry into the community, as well as all contracts
and fiscal concerns thereof. The commissioner shall have the power and
it shall be his or her duty to inquire into all matters connected with
said community supervision. The commissioner shall make such rules and
regulations, not in conflict with the statutes of this state, for the
governance of the officers and other employees of the department
assigned to said community supervision, and in regard to the duties to
be performed by them, as he or she deems proper and shall cause such
rules and regulations to be furnished to each employee assigned to
perform community supervision. The commissioner shall also prescribe a
system of accounts and records to be kept, which shall be uniform. The
commissioner shall also make rules and regulations for a record of
photographs and other means of identifying each incarcerated individual
released to community supervision. The commissioner shall appoint
officers and other employees of the department who are assigned to
perform community supervision.

3. The commissioner may require reports from the superintendent or any
other officer or employee of the department assigned to any correctional
facility or to perform community supervision in relation to his or her
conduct as such officer or employee, and shall have the power to inquire
into any improper conduct which may be alleged to have been committed by
any person at any correctional facility or in the course of his or her
performance of community supervision, and for that purpose to issue
subpoenas to compel the attendance of witnesses, and the production
before him or her of books, writings and papers. A subpoena issued under
this section shall be regulated by the civil practice law and rules.

4. The commissioner and the chair of the parole board shall work
jointly to develop and implement, as soon as practicable, a risk and
needs assessment instrument or instruments, which shall be empirically
validated, that would be administered to incarcerated individuals upon
reception into a correctional facility, and throughout their
incarceration and release to community supervision, to facilitate
appropriate programming both during an incarcerated individual's
incarceration and community supervision, and designed to facilitate the
successful integration of incarcerated individuals into the community.

5. (a) The commissioner shall not make or promulgate any policy and/or
regulation requiring an incarcerated individual to waive any religious
right, including, but not limited to, daily prayer as a condition for
participation in any incarcerated individual program including any such
program developed and/or implemented pursuant to subdivision four of
this section including, but not limited to, the shock program and the
industrial training program.

(b) Upon request, incarcerated individuals shall be granted exemptions
for activities, including jobs, that coincide with the Sabbath and other
work proscription days, including those set forth in the religious
calendar.