Bill Text: NY A02164 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced
NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: Relates to providing voice communication services to incarcerated individuals in state correctional facilities at no cost.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 28-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-05-30 - reported referred to ways and means [A02164 Detail]
Download: New_York-2023-A02164-Introduced.html
Bill Title: Relates to providing voice communication services to incarcerated individuals in state correctional facilities at no cost.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 28-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-05-30 - reported referred to ways and means [A02164 Detail]
Download: New_York-2023-A02164-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 2164 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY January 23, 2023 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. EPSTEIN, SIMON, SEAWRIGHT, KELLES, GONZALEZ-RO- JAS, FORREST, JACKSON, DAVILA, GIBBS -- read once and referred to the Committee on Correction AN ACT to amend the correction law, in relation to providing voice communication services to incarcerated individuals at no cost The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Section 623 of the correction law, as amended by chapter 2 322 of the laws of 2021, is amended to read as follows: 3 § 623. [Incarcerated individual telephone] Voice communication 4 services for incarcerated individuals. 1. [Telephone] Voice communi- 5 cation services contracts for incarcerated individuals in state correc- 6 tional facilities shall be subject to the procurement provisions as set 7 forth in article eleven of the state finance law [provided, however,8that when determining the best value of such telephone service, the9lowest possible cost to the telephone user shall be emphasized]. 10 2. [The department shall make available either a "prepaid" or "collect11call" system, or a combination thereof, for telephone service. Under the12"prepaid" system, funds may be deposited into an account in order to pay13for station-to-station calls, provided that nothing in this subdivision14shall require the department to provide or administer a prepaid system.15Under a "collect call" system, call recipients are billed for the cost16of an accepted telephone call initiated by an incarcerated individual.17Under such "collect call" system, the provider of incarcerated individ-18ual telephone service, as an additional means of payment, must permit19the recipient of incarcerated individual calls to establish an account20with such provider in order to deposit funds to pay for such collect21calls in advance] State and local agencies charged with the operation 22 and management of state and local correctional facilities and juvenile 23 detention facilities shall provide persons in their custody and confined 24 in a correctional or detention facility with voice communication service EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD05082-01-3A. 2164 2 1 at a minimum of ninety minutes per day and ensure sufficient infrastruc- 2 ture to meet this baseline. The commissioner may supplement voice commu- 3 nication service with other advanced communication services, including, 4 but not limited to, video communication and electronic mail services. To 5 the extent that the commissioner provides such voice communication 6 service or any other advanced communication service, each such service 7 shall be provided free of charge to the person initiating and the person 8 receiving the communication. 9 3. [The department shall not accept or receive revenue in excess of10its reasonable operating cost for establishing and administering such11telephone system services as provided in subdivisions one and two of12this section] No state or local agency shall receive revenue from the 13 provision of voice communication services or any other communication 14 services to any person confined in a state or local correctional or 15 detention facility. 16 4. Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit, replace or 17 prevent in-person visitation between persons confined in a state or 18 local correctional or detention facility and relatives, friends or any 19 other persons approved to visit such person. 20 5. The department shall establish rules and regulations or depart- 21 mental procedures to ensure that any [incarcerated individual phone call22system] voice communication services for incarcerated individuals estab- 23 lished by this section provides reasonable security measures to preserve 24 the safety and security of each correctional facility, all staff and all 25 persons outside a facility who may receive incarcerated individual 26 [phone calls] voice communication services for incarcerated individuals. 27 § 2. This act shall take effect April 1, 2024 and shall apply to any 28 new or renewal contract for voice communication services for incarcerat- 29 ed individuals or other advanced communication services entered into on 30 or after such date and provided further that any new or renewal contract 31 for voice communication services for incarcerated individuals or other 32 advanced communication services entered into prior to April 1, 2024 33 shall not run past March 31, 2024.