§ 201. Authority and responsibility for community supervision. 1. The
department shall have responsibility for the preparation of reports and
other data required by the state board of parole in the exercise of its
independent decision making functions.

2. In accordance with the provisions of this chapter, the department
shall supervise incarcerated individuals released to community
supervision, except that the department may consent to the supervision
of a released incarcerated individual by the United States parole
commission pursuant to the witness security act of nineteen hundred
eighty-four.

3. To facilitate the supervision of all incarcerated individuals
released to community supervision, the commissioner shall consider the
implementation of a program of graduated sanctions, including but not
limited to the utilization of a risk and needs assessment instrument
that would be administered to all incarcerated individuals eligible for
community supervision. Such a program would include various components
including approaches that concentrate supervision on new releases,
alternatives to incarceration for technical parole violators and the use
of enhanced technologies.

4. The department shall conduct such investigations as may be
necessary in connection with alleged violations of community
supervision.

5. The department shall assist incarcerated individuals eligible for
community supervision and individuals who are on community supervision
to secure employment, educational or vocational training, and housing.
Any program the department requires a person on community supervision to
take as a condition of such supervision shall not unreasonably interfere
with such person's employment, educational or vocational training
schedule unless such program is a residential treatment program.

6. The department shall have the duty to provide written notice to
incarcerated individuals prior to release to community supervision or
pursuant to subdivision six of section 410.91 of the criminal procedure
law of any requirement to report to the office of victim services any
funds of a convicted person as defined in section six hundred
thirty-two-a of the executive law, the procedure for such reporting and
any potential penalty for a failure to comply.

7. The department shall encourage apprenticeship training of such
persons through the assistance and cooperation of industrial, commercial
and labor organizations.

8. The department may establish a community supervision transition
program, which is hereby defined as community-based residential
facilities designed to aid community supervision violators to develop an
increased capacity for adjustment to community living. Presumptive
releasees, parolees, conditional releasees and those under post-release
supervision who have either (a) been found pursuant to article twelve-B
of the executive law to have violated one or more conditions of release
in an important respect, or (b) allegedly violated one or more of such
conditions upon a finding of probable cause at a preliminary hearing or
upon the waiver thereof may be placed in a community supervision
transition facility. Placement in such a facility upon a finding of
probable cause or the waiver thereof shall not preclude the conduct of a
revocation hearing, nor, absent a waiver, operate to deny the releasee's
right to such revocation hearing.

10. The department shall have the power to grant and revoke
certificates of relief from disabilities and certificates of good
conduct as provided for by law.

11. In any case where a person is entitled to jail time credit under
the provisions of paragraph (c) of subdivision three of section 70.40 of
the penal law, to certify to the person in charge of the institution in
which such person's sentence is being served the amount of such credit.

12. The department shall supervise all persons who are released and
subject to a regimen of strict and intensive supervision and treatment
pursuant to article ten of the mental hygiene law. The department shall
issue and periodically update rules and regulations concerning the
supervision of such persons in consultation with the office of sex
offender management in the division of criminal justice services and the
office of mental health.

13. The department shall perform such other functions as are necessary
and proper in furtherance of the objective of maintaining an effective,
efficient and fair system of community supervision.

14. The commissioner shall promulgate such regulations as are
necessary and proper for the efficient performance of the functions set
forth in this article. He or she shall have the authority to contract
with public or private agencies for the performance of the functions set
forth in this section as are necessary or appropriate to promote the
efficient performance of such responsibilities, except the functions
defined in subdivisions one, two, four, ten and twelve of this section.

15. The commissioner shall provide an annual report to the temporary
president of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, the minority
leader of the senate and minority leader of the assembly, commencing
January first, two thousand twelve. Such report shall include but not be
limited to the number of persons: released to community supervision and
the release type; supervised on community supervision during the
preceding year; whose community supervision was revoked; returned to
incarceration for conviction of a new felony committed while on
community supervision; transferred out of state pursuant to the
Interstate Compact for Adult Supervision. In addition, the commissioner
shall provide other available information regarding community
supervision to the temporary president of the senate, the speaker of the
assembly, the minority leader of the senate and minority leader of the
assembly upon request.