What's happening
This bill establishes a fund to reinvest savings from reduced prison populations into community-based chemical dependence prevention and treatment services.
Why it matters
Directs prison savings into local services. The bill ensures that money saved from having fewer people incarcerated (due to changes in drug sentencing and alternative programs) is specifically reinvested in chemical dependence prevention and treatment in the community, rather than being absorbed into the general budget or allocated elsewhere.
Protects and expands local treatment infrastructure. Local governments must maintain their own spending on chemical dependence services—state reinvestment funds cannot be used to replace existing local contributions. This structure encourages overall growth in service availability instead of allowing localities to cut their own budgets and rely on state funds.
Creates oversight and accountability mechanisms. The bill establishes an interagency council, including representatives from multiple state agencies, service providers, and consumers, to oversee how funds are used, study service gaps (especially for people leaving prison), and recommend program expansions. Annual independent audits of the prison savings and fund use are also required, supporting transparency.
Targets vulnerable and underserved groups. Reinvestment funds can be used for a broad range of evidence-based services, including emergency, residential, outpatient, and vocational programs, with explicit attention to hard-to-serve populations such as those with co-occurring mental illness, HIV/AIDS, or homelessness, aiming to address root causes of criminal justice involvement.
Albany, before your first meeting.
Every bill that moved yesterday, summarized in a sentence and ranked by impact. The Albany Scorecard follows on Sundays.
Free. Unsubscribe in one click. Want alerts on specific bills? Create an account.
Who cares
Headline styles
Fund Community Addiction Treatment
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
1 Co-sponsor
History
- Referred to alcoholism and drug abuse
- Referred to alcoholism and drug abuse
Full text
3 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
3390
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 29, 2019
Introduced by M. of A. CYMBROWITZ -- read once and referred to the Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse
AN ACT to amend the mental hygiene law and the state finance law, in relation to the reinvestment of funds into community-based services for persons suffering from chemical dependence
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Legislative intent and findings. The legislature finds that declines in the state prison inmate census, due to the utilization of alternatives to incarceration and changes in the sentencing laws for persons convicted of drug offenses, create concomitant demand and strain on community-based chemical dependence treatment services.
The legislature also finds that as state expenditures for incarcerated individuals are reduced due to the aforementioned interventions, it is necessary and appropriate to establish a dedicated fund, comprised of those savings, which will be reinvested into the development and expansion of community-based chemical dependence treatment and prevention programs.
The legislature further finds that as it is well established that chemical dependence prevention and treatment is the most effective response to chemical abuse and addiction and the resulting criminal offenses, the availability of effective prevention and treatment programs should be a prominent component of the state's response.
§ 2. Section 1.03 of the mental hygiene law is amended by adding a new subdivision 59 to read as follows:
59. "Community chemical dependence reinvestment services" shall include chemical dependence services as defined in subdivision fiftyfive of this section.
§ 3. The mental hygiene law is amended by adding a new section 22.12 to read as follows: § 22.12 Community reinvestment program.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD07371-01-9
A. 3390 2
(a) The commissioner of the office of alcoholism and substance abuse services shall plan, promote, establish, develop, coordinate, evaluate, and conduct programs and services of prevention, diagnosis, examination, care, treatment, rehabilitation, education and vocational training, and research for the benefit of individuals who suffer from and/or are at risk for chemical dependence. Such programs shall be licensed or approved by the office of alcoholism and substance abuse services and shall include but not be limited to inpatient, residential, half-way house, outpatient, methadone maintenance treatment, emergency, rehabilitative, educational and vocational and other appropriate treatment, prevention and support services.
(b) All moneys received or accepted pursuant to this section shall be deposited into the chemical dependence reinvestment fund established pursuant to section ninety-five-j of the state finance law.
(c) Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of law, in approving funds pursuant to section ninety-five-j of the state finance law, the commissioner of the office of alcoholism and substance abuse services shall consider the extent to which local governmental units have maintained local contributions for expenditures in any local fiscal year for local or unified services, as applicable, provided to persons diagnosed with chemical dependence and made pursuant to this article, at a level equal to or greater than the amount expended that fiscal year. Such commissioner shall be authorized to reduce payments made to local governmental units which have received grants pursuant to this section, in the following fiscal year for failure to maintain expenditures. Funds annually appropriated by the legislature for community chemical dependence reinvestment services are intended to pay for the development, expansion, and operation of community chemical dependence services. Annual community chemical dependence reinvestment funds shall not be used to supplant or replace community chemical dependence costs of any provider that were previously paid from the prior year's office of alcoholism and substance abuse services general fund appropriations for the identical purpose.
(d) There is hereby established the state interagency council on chemical dependence reinvestment fund utilization. This council shall develop and implement a schedule for studying chemical dependence prevention and treatment programs, focusing on the availability of such programs and whether these programs adequately meet the needs of those inmates released from department of corrections facilities. Further, this council shall recommend any needed expansions to chemical dependence treatment programs. By January first of the year following implementation of this section, this council shall report its finding to the governor, the temporary president of the senate, and the speaker of the assembly. Such council shall operate independently and shall consist of a chairperson, chosen by the council members, and the commissioners of the office of alcoholism and substance abuse services, the office of court administration, the division of criminal justice services, the department of corrections and community supervision, and the office of children and family services. The council shall also consist of nine representatives selected from the following three communities as follows: three representatives from the service provider community; three representatives from the consumer community; and three representatives who shall be family members of consumers. One representative from each of these three communities shall be appointed by the temporary president of the senate, the governor, the speaker of the assembly, the minority leader of the assembly and the minority leader of the senate.
A. 3390 3
§ 4. The state finance law is amended by adding a new section 95-j to read as follows:
§ 95-j. Chemical dependence reinvestment fund. 1. There is hereby established in the joint custody of the comptroller and the commissioner of taxation and finance a fund to be known as the chemical dependence reinvestment fund.
2. Moneys of the fund, following appropriation by the legislature and allocation by the director of budget, shall be available to the commissioner of the office of alcoholism and substance abuse services for the development, expansion and operation of new and expanded community chemical dependence services, including but not limited to, services rendered to persons mandated into chemical dependence treatment in lieu of incarceration by the criminal justice system. Specific amounts shall be made available for appropriation upon determinations made by such commissioner. Such funds made available to the office of alcoholism and substance abuse services may also be used to develop state operated services, including emergency and crisis services, case management service, education and vocational services, services for homeless chemically-addicted persons with and/or at risk for HIV infection, HIV-related illnesses or AIDS, persons dually-diagnosed with chemical dependence and mental illness, other hard to serve populations, and other specialized services as approved by such commissioner.
§ 5. Each year an independent actuarial accounting of the savings generated from declines in the state prison census shall be conducted and the results reported to the governor, the division of the budget, the senate finance committee and the assembly ways and means committee no later than one year following the effective date of this act.
§ 6. This act shall take effect on the first of April next succeeding the date on which it shall have become a law.
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.