What's happening
This bill requires New York correctional facilities to obtain birth certificates and social security cards for inmates, provide release identification, and waive related vital records fees.
Why it matters
Facilitates reentry into society. by ensuring inmates have essential documents (birth certificate, social security card, photo ID) upon release, which are often required for jobs, housing, and public assistance applications, reducing barriers to successful reintegration.
Reduces bureaucratic obstacles. by making correctional facilities responsible for initiating and correcting vital records, including amending birth certificates with missing or incomplete information, streamlining processes that individuals might otherwise struggle to navigate on their own.
Removes financial barriers. for current and formerly incarcerated individuals by mandating that state and local agencies waive fees for obtaining or correcting vital records, which can be a significant hurdle for people with limited resources at release.
Promotes continuity of identification. for those under community supervision by allowing for reissuance of release IDs if a state ID has not yet been obtained, helping to prevent gaps where individuals lack valid photo identification, which can impact access to services and compliance with legal requirements.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Give Inmates Birth Certificates
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
Senator · Senate District 32
2 Co-sponsors
History
- Committed to rules
- Advanced to third reading
- 2nd report cal.
- 1st report cal.585
- Referred to crime victims, crime and correction
- Committed to rules
- Advanced to third reading
- 2nd report cal.
- 1st report cal.632
- Referred to crime victims, crime and 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.
Give Inmates Birth Certificates
In Senate Committee · Rules · Sponsor Jeffrion Aubry
Full text
3 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
4212
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 4, 2019
Introduced by Sen. SEPULVEDA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Crime Victims, Crime and Correction
AN ACT to amend the correction law and the public health law, in relation to birth certificates for inmates
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Section 71 of the correction law is amended by adding a new subdivision 9 to read as follows:
9. (a) For any inmate who will be committed to the custody of the department for one year or greater, the commissioner shall make diligent efforts to obtain a copy of the birth certificate or certification of birth and social security card for each such inmate under his or her custody. Such birth certificate or certification of birth and social security card shall be kept in the inmate records until the inmate is released from custody upon which such birth certificate or certification of birth and social security card shall be provided to the inmate.
(b) Where a facility in which an inmate is housed receives a birth certificate or certification of birth containing missing or incomplete information as to the inmate's first name such facility shall initiate the process to correct or amend the birth certificate of the inmate in consultation with and upon consent of the inmate.
§ 2. Subdivision 2 of section 125 of the correction law, as amended by section 21 of subpart A of part C of chapter 62 of the laws of 2011, is amended to read as follows:
2. The superintendent of each of said facilities shall furnish to each inmate who shall be discharged or released from said facility by pardon, parole, conditional release or otherwise, except such inmates as are released for return for resentence or new trial or upon a certificate of reasonable doubt, and except such inmates who are released to participate in a program outside the facility who are required to return to
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD08091-01-9
S. 4212 2
the facility, suitable clothing adapted to the season in which he or she is discharged not to exceed sixty-five dollars in value and transportation to the county of his or her conviction or to such other place as the commissioner may designate. In addition, the commissioner shall take such steps as are necessary to ensure that inmates have a department-issued release photo identification card which shall be valid for ninety days or greater, and at least forty dollars available upon release.
§ 3. Subdivision 5 of section 201 of the correction law, as added by section 32 of subpart A of part C of chapter 62 of the laws of 2011, is amended to read as follows:
5. (a) The department shall assist inmates eligible for community supervision and [inmates] persons who are on community supervision to secure employment, educational or vocational training, and housing.
(b) Where a person on community supervision whose department-issued release identification card will expire prior to such person obtaining a state identification card from the department of motor vehicles, the community supervision officer shall request that the department reissue such release identification card for an additional period of time if in the officer's discretion such reissuance will help to ensure that the person on community supervision shall have uninterrupted possession of a state-issued photo identification card.
§ 4. Subdivision 4 of section 4174 of the public health law, as amended by chapter 323 of the laws of 2016, is amended to read as follows:
4. No fee shall be charged for a search, certification, certificate, certified copy or certified transcript of a record to be used for school entrance, employment certificate or for purposes of public relief or when required by the veterans administration to be used in determining the eligibility of any person to participate in the benefits made available by the veterans administration or when required by a board of elections for the purposes of determining voter eligibility or when requested by the department of corrections and community supervision or a local correctional facility as defined in subdivision sixteen of section two of the correction law for the purpose of correcting, amending, or providing a certified copy or certified transcript of birth to an inmate in anticipation of such inmate's release from custody or to obtain a death certificate to be used for administrative purposes for an inmate who has died under custody or when requested by the office of children and family services or an authorized agency for the purpose of providing a certified copy or certified transcript of birth to a youth placed in the care and custody or custody and guardianship of the local commissioner of social services or the care and custody or custody and guardianship of the office of children and family services in anticipation of such youth's discharge from placement or foster care.
§ 5. Section 4179 of the public health law, as amended by chapter 323 of the laws of 2016, is amended to read as follows:
§ 4179. Vital records; fees; city of New York. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph one of subdivision a of section 207.13 of the health code of the city of New York, the department of health shall charge, and the applicant shall pay, for a search of two consecutive calendar years under one name and the issuance of a certificate of birth, death or termination of pregnancy, or a certification of birth or death, or a certification that the record cannot be found, a fee of fifteen dollars for each copy. Provided, however, that no such fee shall be charged when the department of corrections and community supervision or a local correctional facility as defined in subdivision sixteen of
S. 4212 3
section two of the correction law requests a certificate of birth or certification of birth for the purpose of correcting, amending, or providing such certificate of birth or certification of birth to an inmate in anticipation of such inmate's release from custody or to obtain a death certificate to be used for administrative purposes for an inmate who has died under custody or when the office of children and family services or an authorized agency requests a certified copy or certified transcript of birth for a youth placed in the custody of the local commissioner of social services or the custody of the office of children and family services pursuant to article three of the family court act for the purpose of providing such certified copy or certified transcript of birth to such youth in anticipation of discharge from placement.
§ 6. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day 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 and the public health law, in relation to birth certificates for inmates
Purpose or general idea of bill
To ensure the accuracy of inmate birth certificates and to ensure persons released from prison have state-issued identification.
Summary of specific provisions
Section one of the bill amends section 71 of the correction law to codi- fy the existing practice of the Department of Corrections of obtaining birth certificates and social security cards for inmates, providing then to the inmate upon his or her release from prison.
Section one also required the Department of make best efforts to have an inmate's birth certificate corrected when the certificate contains an error or is incomplete.
Section two of the bill amends section 125 of the correction law to codify the existing practice of providing a Department issued photo identification card to each inmate upon release.
Section three of the bill amends section 201 of the correction law to provide the discretion to community supervision officers to have a releasee's expiring Department identification card reissued when neces- sary to ensure uninterrupted possession of identification while the releasee is making efforts to meet the documentation requirements of the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Sections four and five of the bill amends the public health health law to add corrections and amendments to birth certificates to those docu- ments provided to the Department of Corrections at no charge.
Section six is the effective date.
Justification
Currently the Department of Corrections works to obtain birth certif- icates and social security cards for inmates, furnishing the documents to them upon their release. The Department does this in part so that releasees can quickly obtain department of motor vehicle identification cards. Sometimes, however, a birth certificate contains a spelling error or is missing information, such as the inmate's first name, largqly rendering it useless for the purpose of obtaining a DMV identification ca-rd. Getting a birth certificate corrected can be a long and arduous process and is particularly difficult for a person just getting out of prison who does not have other forms of identification.
This bill would require the Department to make best efforts to assist such inmates in having their birth certificates corrected and reissued while they are still in prison.
Additionally, the Department provides inmates photo identification cards upon their release, so that they have some form of identification while they work to obtain housing, employment and identification from the DMV. The Department's release identification requires fingerprinting and scanning of the inmate's image into the state's facial recognition soft- ware database, in addition to the traditional security features of a state-issued identification card. However, these prison-issued iden- tification cards expire 90 days after release, which may occur before a releasee has obtained a nondrivers identification card from DMV. Where a releasee might need a few more weeks to gather and/or obtain DMV-re- quired documents, this bill will allow community supervision officers the discretion to reissue a releasee's prison-issued identification card for an additional period of time to be determined by the Department.
Prior legislative history
New Bill in Senate. Assembly: Ordered to third reading in 2014, 2015, 2016. Reported to Ways and Means, 2018, 2019.
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day 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.