What's happening
This bill requires New York correctional facilities to establish an inmate visitation program with expanded in-person visitation and privacy protections.
Why it matters
Strengthens family and community ties. By mandating in-person visitation seven days a week and ensuring visiting hours accommodate travel, the bill aims to help inmates maintain relationships that are proven to reduce recidivism and support successful reentry.
Protects privacy during sensitive visits. The requirement for confidential meeting areas for attorneys, media, and clergy ensures that inmates’ rights to legal counsel, religious practice, and communication with the press are respected and protected from undue surveillance.
Establishes fair and transparent visitation policies. By requiring an equitable overcrowding policy and published rules, the bill seeks to prevent arbitrary or discriminatory limits on visits, giving due consideration to visitors traveling long distances.
Limits unwanted contact. By specifying that no inmate can be forced to receive visitors, including lawyers or media, the bill recognizes inmates’ autonomy and right to refuse contact, which can be important for personal safety or mental health.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Expand Inmate Visitation Rights
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to crime victims, crime and correction
- Referred to rules
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
6725
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
June 15, 2017
Introduced by Sen. MONTGOMERY -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules
AN ACT to amend the correction law, in relation to the establishment of an inmate visitation program
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The correction law is amended by adding a new section 114 to read as follows:
§ 114. Inmate visitation program. 1. The department shall provide an inmate visitation program which gives inmates opportunities for personal contact with relatives, friends, clergy, volunteers and other persons to promote better institutional adjustment and better community adjustment upon release. Such program shall include, but not be limited to, (a) in-person visitation seven days a week in general confinement facilities, (b) visiting hours that are reasonably likely to accommodate persons traveling from within the state, (c) visits of sufficient duration so that visitors and inmates will be able to maintain relationship bonds, (d) designated areas arranged to provide sufficient space to accommodate the likely number of visits on weekends while maintaining appropriate security, and (e) a published overcrowding policy that is equitable with due consideration to the distance traveled by the visitor.
2. Areas shall be designated for confidential meetings which will ensure the privacy of conversations during professional visits of attorneys or their duly authorized representatives, representatives of the news media or visiting clergy.
3. The department shall promulgate rules to ensure the objective of this program including, but not limited to, the ability of superintendents to modify visiting rules to adjust to local conditions with the prior approval of the commissioner; however, the departmental overcrowding policy shall not be modified.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD10877-01-7
S. 6725 2
4. No inmate is to be visited against his or her will by any person including attorneys or their duly authorized representatives, or representatives of the news media.
§ 2. This act shall take effect one year after it shall have become a law.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the correction law, in relation to the establishment of an inmate visitation program
Purpose
To establish the inmate visiting program in state correctional facilities
Summary of provisions
Section 1 adds a new section 114 to the correction law establishing a section authorizing inmate visits.
Section 2 provides an effective date.
Justification
Research has shown that inmates who receive visits from family, friends and volunteers are significantly less likely to recidivate than inmates who do not receive visits. DOCCS has long allowed visitation in its facilities, although nothing in law requires them to do so. The SFY 2017-2018 Executive budget proposed to reduce visitation in maximum security prisons from seven days a week to three days a week. Although ultimately withdrawn, this proposal shone an unintended light on the benefits of inmate visitation, from providing jobs for correctional staff to incentivizing program participation, from increasing inmate morale and facility safety to facilitating reentry through the preservation of family bonds. There was rare consensus on both sides of the aisle, and in both houses of the legislature, that the visiting program, while low in cost, provides valued returns.
This bill codifies the inmate visiting program. It also restores inmate visiting programs in medium security prisons, where violence has reportedly increased in recent years, to seven days a week. The fiscal impact of this bill is limited to its impact on medium security facilities since maximum security facilities still retain daily visitation. The money spent would be an investment in the laudable correctional goals of institutional safety, inmate rehabilitation and public safety.
Fiscal implications
To be determined.
Local fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
This act shall take effect one year after it shall have become law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.