Bill Text: NY A04348 | 2025-2026 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requires that curricula and educational programs provide incarcerated individuals the opportunity to earn educational or vocational credits which shall be transferable to an educational institution upon the release of the incarcerated individual.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2025-02-04 - referred to correction [A04348 Detail]

Download: New_York-2025-A04348-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          4348

                               2025-2026 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    February 4, 2025
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by M. of A. DILAN -- read once and referred to the Committee
          on Correction

        AN ACT to amend the correction law, in relation to requiring the  educa-
          tional  and  vocational credits earned by incarcerated individuals are
          transferable upon release

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1.  Subdivision  1  of  section 136 of the correction law, as
     2  amended by chapter 322 of the laws  of  2021,  is  amended  to  read  as
     3  follows:
     4    1.  The  objective  of  correctional  education  in its broadest sense
     5  should be the socialization  of  the  incarcerated  individuals  through
     6  varied  impressional and expressional activities, with emphasis on indi-
     7  vidual incarcerated individual needs.   The objective  of  this  program
     8  shall  be the return of these incarcerated individuals to society with a
     9  more wholesome attitude toward living, with a desire  to  conduct  them-
    10  selves  as  good  citizens,  and with the skill and knowledge which will
    11  give them a reasonable chance to maintain themselves  and  their  depen-
    12  dents  through  honest  labor.  To this end each incarcerated individual
    13  shall be given a program of education which, on the basis  of  available
    14  data,  seems  most  likely  to  further the process of socialization and
    15  rehabilitation. Provided that, the commissioner,  in  consultation  with
    16  the commissioner of education, shall develop a curricula for and require
    17  provision  of  an education program to all incarcerated individual, on a
    18  periodic basis, on  the  consequences  and  prevention  of  shaken  baby
    19  syndrome  which may include the viewing of a video presentation thereon.
    20  The time daily devoted to such education shall be such  as  is  required
    21  for  meeting the above objectives. The director of education, subject to
    22  the direction of  the  commissioner  and  after  consultation  with  the
    23  commissioner of education, shall develop the curricula and the education
    24  programs that are required to meet the special needs of each correction-

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD05815-01-5
        A. 4348                             2

     1  al  facility  in  the  department.  The  commissioner of education shall
     2  ensure such curricula  and  educational  programs  provide  incarcerated
     3  individuals  the  opportunity  to earn educational or vocational credits
     4  which  shall  be  transferable  to  an  educational institution upon the
     5  release of the incarcerated individual. The commissioner  of  education,
     6  in  cooperation  with  the  commissioner  and the director of education,
     7  shall set up the  educational  requirements  for  the  certification  of
     8  teachers  in all such correctional facilities. Such educational require-
     9  ments shall be sufficiently broad and comprehensive to include  training
    10  in  penology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, in the special subjects
    11  to be taught, and in any other professional courses  as  may  be  deemed
    12  necessary by the responsible officers, and shall include training relat-
    13  ing to the consequences and prevention of shaken baby syndrome which may
    14  include the viewing of a video presentation thereon. No certificates for
    15  teaching  service  in  the  state  institutions shall be issued unless a
    16  minimum of four years of  training  beyond  the  high  school  has  been
    17  secured,  or  an  acceptable  equivalent.  Existing requirements for the
    18  certification of teachers in the institutions shall  continue  in  force
    19  until changed pursuant to the provisions of this section.
    20    § 2.  This act shall take effect immediately.