Establishes the inmate fraud act, which creates the crime of inmate fraud, allows inmates accounts to be frozen and establishes the victim of inmate fraud fund

1 Co-sponsor

• Bill Perkins

BILL NUMBER:S1104A

Title of bill

An act to amend the penal law, in relation to establishing the crime of inmate fraud, to amend the correction law, in relation to freezing accounts of inmates and to amend the state finance law, in relation to establishing the victims of inmate fraud fund

Purpose

The purpose of this legislation is to protect the public from frauds perpetrated by inmates of correctional institutions, and to establish a fund to recompense victims of such frauds.

Summary of provisions

Section one is the short title, which provides the act shall be known as the "inmate fraud act."

Section two amends section 10.00 of the penal law by adding a new subdivision 21 that defines the term "inmate," for the purposes of section 190.87 of the penal law, to mean a person who is in the custody of the department of corrections, a sheriff, a county jailor a secure facility.

Section three amends the penal law by adding a new section, 190.87, which provides for the elements of the crime of inmate fraud, which is a class C felony.

Section four amends the correction law by adding a new section 80, which provides the procedures the department will follow upon reasonable suspicion of inmate fraud. Such procedures will provide due process to the alleged perpetrator, and restitution to the victim, if inmate fraud is found to have occurred.

Section five amends the state finance law by adding a new section 99-u, which creates the "victims of inmate fraud fund" in the custody of the state comptroller. This fund shall be used to hold funds resulting from inmate fraud that have been unable to be returned to the victim of such fraud.

Justification

Fraud committed by inmates upon the general public is a widespread problem. In 2006, for example, a group of inmates in Michigan were convicted of running a tax fraud and identity theft operation from their prison cells which resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars being obtained by fraud. (See release by Attorney General Mike Cox, http://www.michigan.gov/ag/0,1607,7-164-34739 34811-150774--.00. html, last visited on February 3, 2010.) Another example comes from a story that ran on January 25, 2010 in the San Jose Mercury, described a credit card and identity theft ring run by a California prison inmate that defrauded credit card companies out of more than

$130,000. On a nationwide basis, the examples of such inmate-perpetrated fraud are too numerous to list here.

This legislation amends New York's penal and correction laws to protect New Yorkers from identity theft, theft of telecommunications services, credit card theft, and a variety of other types of inmate fraud that victimize the innocent. Other states have enacted similar legislation, such as: Indiana, in 2008; Illinois, in 2009; Florida, which amended its law in 2000; and various counties in Texas.

The purpose of these laws is to ensure that incarcerated criminals who commit crimes while imprisoned are properly penalized, and to effectuate restitution to the victims of these criminal schemes.

Legislative history

2009-10: S.6779 - Referred to Codes

Fiscal implications

To be determined.

Local fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeeding the date on which it shall have become law.