What's happening
This bill updates the definition of "serious mental illness" for inmates in correctional facilities to align with the mental hygiene law.
Why it matters
Creates consistency across state systems. by using the mental hygiene law’s definition of “serious mental illness,” potentially ensuring that inmates are identified and treated based on the same criteria used in community mental health settings.
Broadens or narrows eligibility for protections or services. depending on how the mental hygiene law defines “serious mental illness”—which could change who qualifies for mental health accommodations or alternatives to segregated confinement in prisons.
Reflects updated clinical standards. by moving away from a fixed, diagnosis-specific list (based on the DSM) to a more flexible legal definition, which may better capture a range of serious mental health conditions as they are understood today.
May impact correctional facility practices. regarding screening, treatment, and housing of inmates with mental illness, potentially leading to shifts in resource allocation and prison management.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Align Prison Mental Health Definitions
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
3 Co-sponsors
History
- Referred to mental health and developmental disabilities
- Delivered to senate
- Passed assembly
- Ordered to third reading cal.256
- Advanced to third reading cal.333
- Reported
- Reported referred to ways and means
- Referred to correction
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Update Mental Illness Definition
In Senate Committee · Crime Victims, Crime And Correction · Sponsor Luis R. Sepúlveda
Full text
1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
3206
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 27, 2017
Introduced by M. of A. AUBRY -- read once and referred to the Committee on Correction
AN ACT to amend the correction law, in relation to inmates with a serious mental illness
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subparagraph (i) of paragraph (e) of subdivision 6 of section 137 of the correction law, as added by chapter 1 of the laws of 2008, is amended to read as follows:
(i) he or she [has a current diagnosis of, or is diagnosed at the initial or any subsequent assessment conducted during the inmate's segregated confinement with, one or more of the following types of Axis I diagnoses, as described in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and such diagnoses shall be made based upon all relevant clinical factors, including but not limited to symptoms related to such diagnoses:
(A) schizophrenia (all sub-types),
(B) delusional disorder,
(C) schizophreniform disorder,
(D) schizoaffective disorder,
(E) brief psychotic disorder,
(F) substance-induced psychotic disorder (excluding intoxication and withdrawal),
(G) psychotic disorder not otherwise specified,
(H) major depressive disorders, or
(I) bipolar disorder I and II] is a person with a serious mental illness, as defined in subdivision fifty-two of section 1.03 of the mental hygiene law;
§ 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD08337-01-7
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.