N.Y. Correction Law § 70: Establishment, use and designation of correctional facilities

§ 70. Establishment, use and designation of correctional facilities.

1. (a) Except as provided in paragraphs (b) and (c) of this

subdivision, every institution operated by the department for the

confinement of persons under sentence of imprisonment, or for the

confinement of persons committed for failure to pay a fine, shall be a

correctional facility.

(b) An institution operated by the department for the care and

confinement of persons who have been found to be mentally defective or

mentally ill by a court and who are confined in such place pursuant to

an order of a court based upon such finding shall not be deemed to be a

correctional facility.

(c) An institution operated by the department as a drug treatment

campus, as defined in subdivision twenty of section two of this chapter

and used to provide intensive drug treatment services for parolees and

certain parole violators, shall not be deemed to be a correctional

facility.

2. Correctional facilities shall be used for the purpose of providing

places of confinement and programs of treatment for persons in the

custody of the department. Such use shall be suited, to the greatest

extent practicable, to the objective of assisting sentenced persons to

live as law abiding citizens. In furtherance of this objective the

department may establish and maintain any type of institution or program

of treatment, not inconsistent with other provisions of law, but with

due regard to:

(a) The safety and security of the community;

(b) The right of every person in the custody of the department to

receive humane treatment; and

(c) The health and safety of every person in the custody of the

department.

3. (a) The commissioner may continue to maintain, as a correctional

facility, any institution operated by the department prior to May

eighth, nineteen hundred seventy, and may add to or close any such

place, and may establish and maintain new correctional facilities, in

accordance with the needs of the department and provided expenditures

for such purposes are within amounts made available therefor by

appropriation; provided, however, that before the closure of any

correctional facility, for reasons other than those set forth in

paragraph (a) of subdivision eight of section forty-five of this

chapter, the provisions of section seventy-nine-a of this article shall

be adhered to.

(b) A correctional camp or a shock incarceration correctional facility

may be established by the department (i) upon land controlled and

designated by the commissioner, or (ii) on land controlled and

designated by the commissioner of parks, recreation and historic

preservation or, in the sixth park region, by the commissioner of

environmental conservation.

4. Two or more correctional facilities may be maintained or

established in the same building or on the same premises so long as the

incarcerated individuals of each are at all times kept separate and

apart from each other except that the incarcerated individuals of one

may be permitted to have contact with incarcerated individuals of the

other in order to perform duties, receive therapeutic treatment, attend

religious services and engage in like activities as specifically

provided in the rules and regulations of the department.

5. Each correctional facility must be designated in the rules and

regulations of the department and no correctional facility can be used

by the department for confinement of persons unless the rules and

regulations of the department specify at least the following:

(a) The name and location of the facility;

(b) Whether the facility is to be used for the confinement of males or

for the confinement of females;

(c) The age range of the persons who may be confined in the facility;

and

(d) The classification of the facility.

6. Correctional facilities shall be classified by the commissioner in

accordance with the following types of classifications:

(a) Each facility shall be classified with respect to the type of

security maintained as either a maximum, medium or minimum security

facility.

(b) Each facility shall be classified with respect to the function

served in accordance with one or more of the following categories: (i)

reception center; (ii) residential treatment facility; (iii) detention

center; (iv) correctional camp; (v) diagnostic and treatment center;

(vi) general confinement facility; (vii) work release facility; (viii)

shock incarceration correctional facility; (ix) alcohol and substance

abuse treatment facility; (x) alcohol and substance abuse treatment

correctional annex.

7. The commissioner shall have the authority to enter into leases

within the amount appropriated therefor, for the purpose of maintaining

or establishing any correctional facility or any adjunct thereto.

8. The commissioner is authorized to enter into contracts, within the

amount appropriated therefor, with any university, social agency or

qualified person to render professional services to any correctional

facility.