§ 70. Establishment, use and designation of correctional facilities.
1. (a) Except as provided in paragraphs (b) and (c) of this
subdivision, every institution operated by the department for the
confinement of persons under sentence of imprisonment, or for the
confinement of persons committed for failure to pay a fine, shall be a
correctional facility.

(b) An institution operated by the department for the care and
confinement of persons who have been found to be mentally defective or
mentally ill by a court and who are confined in such place pursuant to
an order of a court based upon such finding shall not be deemed to be a
correctional facility.

(c) An institution operated by the department as a drug treatment
campus, as defined in subdivision twenty of section two of this chapter
and used to provide intensive drug treatment services for parolees and
certain parole violators, shall not be deemed to be a correctional
facility.

2. Correctional facilities shall be used for the purpose of providing
places of confinement and programs of treatment for persons in the
custody of the department. Such use shall be suited, to the greatest
extent practicable, to the objective of assisting sentenced persons to
live as law abiding citizens. In furtherance of this objective the
department may establish and maintain any type of institution or program
of treatment, not inconsistent with other provisions of law, but with
due regard to:

(a) The safety and security of the community;

(b) The right of every person in the custody of the department to
receive humane treatment; and

(c) The health and safety of every person in the custody of the
department.

3. (a) The commissioner may continue to maintain, as a correctional
facility, any institution operated by the department prior to May
eighth, nineteen hundred seventy, and may add to or close any such
place, and may establish and maintain new correctional facilities, in
accordance with the needs of the department and provided expenditures
for such purposes are within amounts made available therefor by
appropriation; provided, however, that before the closure of any
correctional facility, for reasons other than those set forth in
paragraph (a) of subdivision eight of section forty-five of this
chapter, the provisions of section seventy-nine-a of this article shall
be adhered to.

(b) A correctional camp or a shock incarceration correctional facility
may be established by the department (i) upon land controlled and
designated by the commissioner, or (ii) on land controlled and
designated by the commissioner of parks, recreation and historic
preservation or, in the sixth park region, by the commissioner of
environmental conservation.

4. Two or more correctional facilities may be maintained or
established in the same building or on the same premises so long as the
incarcerated individuals of each are at all times kept separate and
apart from each other except that the incarcerated individuals of one
may be permitted to have contact with incarcerated individuals of the
other in order to perform duties, receive therapeutic treatment, attend
religious services and engage in like activities as specifically
provided in the rules and regulations of the department.

5. Each correctional facility must be designated in the rules and
regulations of the department and no correctional facility can be used
by the department for confinement of persons unless the rules and
regulations of the department specify at least the following:

(a) The name and location of the facility;

(b) Whether the facility is to be used for the confinement of males or
for the confinement of females;

(c) The age range of the persons who may be confined in the facility;
and

(d) The classification of the facility.

6. Correctional facilities shall be classified by the commissioner in
accordance with the following types of classifications:

(a) Each facility shall be classified with respect to the type of
security maintained as either a maximum, medium or minimum security
facility.

(b) Each facility shall be classified with respect to the function
served in accordance with one or more of the following categories: (i)
reception center; (ii) residential treatment facility; (iii) detention
center; (iv) correctional camp; (v) diagnostic and treatment center;
(vi) general confinement facility; (vii) work release facility; (viii)
shock incarceration correctional facility; (ix) alcohol and substance
abuse treatment facility; (x) alcohol and substance abuse treatment
correctional annex.

7. The commissioner shall have the authority to enter into leases
within the amount appropriated therefor, for the purpose of maintaining
or establishing any correctional facility or any adjunct thereto.

8. The commissioner is authorized to enter into contracts, within the
amount appropriated therefor, with any university, social agency or
qualified person to render professional services to any correctional
facility.