Bill Text: NY A08017 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requires the department of corrections and community supervision to establish discharge plans and reentry services for wrongfully convicted individuals upon their discharge which includes housing needs, educational needs, employment needs, medical needs, and specific social service needs.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - referred to correction [A08017 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A08017-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          8017

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    September 1, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced by M. of A. DINOWITZ -- read once and referred to the Commit-
          tee on Correction

        AN ACT to amend the correction law, in relation to requiring the depart-
          ment  of  corrections and community supervision to establish discharge
          plans and reentry services for wrongfully convicted  individuals  upon
          their discharge

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

     1    Section 1. The section heading of section 78 of the correction law, as
     2  added by section 81-b of part WWW of chapter 59 of the laws of 2017,  is
     3  amended to read as follows:
     4    Discharge  plans  and reentry services; juvenile offenders and adoles-
     5  cent offenders.
     6    § 2. The correction law is amended by adding a  new  section  78-a  to
     7  read as follows:
     8    §  78-a.  Discharge  plans  and reentry services; wrongfully convicted
     9  individuals. 1. Definitions. For the purposes of this section, the term:
    10    (a) "wrongfully convicted individual" means  a  person  who  has  been
    11  convicted  and  subsequently  determined to be innocent of the crime for
    12  which they were convicted.
    13    (b) "discharge plan" means a plan describing the manner in  which  the
    14  wrongfully convicted individual will be able to receive reentry services
    15  upon release from the custody of the department to the community.
    16    (c) "reentry services" means appropriate programming and support plan-
    17  ning  offered to a wrongfully convicted individual upon release from the
    18  custody of the department to the community, as well as follow-up support
    19  offered to the individual after their release.
    20    2. Discharge plans and reentry services. Prior to the  release  of  an
    21  eligible  incarcerated  individual from the custody of the department, a
    22  designee of  the  department  shall,  in  consultation  with  non-profit
    23  providers  and in conjunction with such wrongfully convicted individual,

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD11996-01-3
        A. 8017                             2

     1  develop and offer to such individual a discharge  plan.  Such  discharge
     2  plan shall:
     3    (a)  be  designed  to  address  the  unique  needs  of  the wrongfully
     4  convicted individual, including, but not limited  to,  the  individual's
     5  geographic  location  upon  release  from the custody of the department,
     6  housing needs, educational needs, employment needs, medical  needs,  and
     7  specific social service needs.
     8    (b)  provide  access to reentry services including, but not be limited
     9  to, case management and connections to employment services,  educational
    10  services,  mental  health  services, medical care, housing services, and
    11  other social services that may be available to such wrongfully convicted
    12  individual upon their release.
    13    § 3. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth  day  after  it  shall
    14  have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or
    15  repeal  of  any  rule  or regulation necessary for the implementation of
    16  this act on its effective date are authorized to be made  and  completed
    17  on or before such effective date.