N.Y. Correction Law § 201: Authority and responsibility for community supervision

§ 201. Authority and responsibility for community supervision. 1. The

department shall have responsibility for the preparation of reports and

other data required by the state board of parole in the exercise of its

independent decision making functions.

2. In accordance with the provisions of this chapter, the department

shall supervise incarcerated individuals released to community

supervision, except that the department may consent to the supervision

of a released incarcerated individual by the United States parole

commission pursuant to the witness security act of nineteen hundred

eighty-four.

3. To facilitate the supervision of all incarcerated individuals

released to community supervision, the commissioner shall consider the

implementation of a program of graduated sanctions, including but not

limited to the utilization of a risk and needs assessment instrument

that would be administered to all incarcerated individuals eligible for

community supervision. Such a program would include various components

including approaches that concentrate supervision on new releases,

alternatives to incarceration for technical parole violators and the use

of enhanced technologies.

4. The department shall conduct such investigations as may be

necessary in connection with alleged violations of community

supervision.

5. The department shall assist incarcerated individuals eligible for

community supervision and individuals who are on community supervision

to secure employment, educational or vocational training, and housing.

Any program the department requires a person on community supervision to

take as a condition of such supervision shall not unreasonably interfere

with such person's employment, educational or vocational training

schedule unless such program is a residential treatment program.

6. The department shall have the duty to provide written notice to

incarcerated individuals prior to release to community supervision or

pursuant to subdivision six of section 410.91 of the criminal procedure

law of any requirement to report to the office of victim services any

funds of a convicted person as defined in section six hundred

thirty-two-a of the executive law, the procedure for such reporting and

any potential penalty for a failure to comply.

7. The department shall encourage apprenticeship training of such

persons through the assistance and cooperation of industrial, commercial

and labor organizations.

8. The department may establish a community supervision transition

program, which is hereby defined as community-based residential

facilities designed to aid community supervision violators to develop an

increased capacity for adjustment to community living. Presumptive

releasees, parolees, conditional releasees and those under post-release

supervision who have either (a) been found pursuant to article twelve-B

of the executive law to have violated one or more conditions of release

in an important respect, or (b) allegedly violated one or more of such

conditions upon a finding of probable cause at a preliminary hearing or

upon the waiver thereof may be placed in a community supervision

transition facility. Placement in such a facility upon a finding of

probable cause or the waiver thereof shall not preclude the conduct of a

revocation hearing, nor, absent a waiver, operate to deny the releasee's

right to such revocation hearing.

10. The department shall have the power to grant and revoke

certificates of relief from disabilities and certificates of good

conduct as provided for by law.

11. In any case where a person is entitled to jail time credit under

the provisions of paragraph (c) of subdivision three of section 70.40 of

the penal law, to certify to the person in charge of the institution in

which such person's sentence is being served the amount of such credit.

12. The department shall supervise all persons who are released and

subject to a regimen of strict and intensive supervision and treatment

pursuant to article ten of the mental hygiene law. The department shall

issue and periodically update rules and regulations concerning the

supervision of such persons in consultation with the office of sex

offender management in the division of criminal justice services and the

office of mental health.

13. The department shall perform such other functions as are necessary

and proper in furtherance of the objective of maintaining an effective,

efficient and fair system of community supervision.

14. The commissioner shall promulgate such regulations as are

necessary and proper for the efficient performance of the functions set

forth in this article. He or she shall have the authority to contract

with public or private agencies for the performance of the functions set

forth in this section as are necessary or appropriate to promote the

efficient performance of such responsibilities, except the functions

defined in subdivisions one, two, four, ten and twelve of this section.

15. The commissioner shall provide an annual report to the temporary

president of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, the minority

leader of the senate and minority leader of the assembly, commencing

January first, two thousand twelve. Such report shall include but not be

limited to the number of persons: released to community supervision and

the release type; supervised on community supervision during the

preceding year; whose community supervision was revoked; returned to

incarceration for conviction of a new felony committed while on

community supervision; transferred out of state pursuant to the

Interstate Compact for Adult Supervision. In addition, the commissioner

shall provide other available information regarding community

supervision to the temporary president of the senate, the speaker of the

assembly, the minority leader of the senate and minority leader of the

assembly upon request.