71 - Persons received into the custody of the department.
§ 71. Persons received into the custody of the department. 1. * Persons committed to the custody of the department under an indeterminate or determinate sentence of imprisonment shall be delivered to correctional facilities designated as reception centers in the rules and regulations of the department. The commissioner may designate any correctional facility as a reception center subject, however, to the following criteria: * NB Effective until September 1, 2011 1. * Persons committed to the custody of the department under an indeterminate or a reformatory sentence of imprisonment shall be delivered to correctional facilities designated as reception centers in the rules and regulations of the department. The commissioner may designate any correctional facility as a reception center subject, however, to the following criteria: * NB Effective September 1, 2011 (a) Males and females shall not be received at the same correctional facility; (b) Males under the age of twenty-one at the time sentence is imposed shall not be received at the same correctional facility as males who are twenty-one or over at the time sentence is imposed. 1-a. The commissioner shall ensure that each general confinement facility law library has information on international offender transfers sufficient to inform those persons who are citizens of a treaty nation of the existence of such treaties and of the means by which such persons may initiate a request for return to the person's country of citizenship for service of the sentence imposed. Such law libraries shall also contain the most recent annual Amnesty International Report published by Amnesty International describing the conditions of prisons in each treaty nation and, to the extent practicable, other materials describing such prison conditions published by the United Nations, United States Department of State or human rights organizations. In addition, to the extent practicable, such law libraries shall contain information either listing each foreign country's provisions for the reduction of the terms of confinement for penal sentences as well as the availability of inmate programs or, shall contain a list of officials in the United States Department of Justice or the embassy of the foreign country to whom an inmate may write for information. To the extent practicable, newly received inmates who are identified as foreign nationals of treaty nations shall, as part of the reception process, be advised of the existence of such treaties and the possibility of the initiation of a transfer request. 1-b. The commissioner shall promulgate rules and regulations setting forth the procedures by which an inmate may apply to be considered for transfer to a foreign nation. The commissioner, or his designee, shall retain sole and absolute authority to approve or disapprove an inmate's application for transfer. Nothing herein shall be construed to confer upon an inmate a right to be a transferred to a foreign nation. Notwithstanding any other law, rule or regulation to the contrary, no inmate application for transfer shall be processed unless the inmate has first indicated his willingness and desire in writing, on a form prescribed by the commissioner, to be considered for transfer to the foreign nation. Such form shall also contain a copy of the inmate's most recent legal date computation printout indicating the term or aggregate term of the sentence originally imposed and the release dates resulting therefrom. If a request for transfer is approved by the commissioner or his designee, facility staff shall assist in the preparation and submission of all materials and forms necessary to effectuate the person's request for transfer to the United States Department of Justicefor purposes of finalization of the transfer process, including verification proceedings before a United States District Court Judge, United States magistrate or other appointed United States official to assure and document the inmate's voluntary request for transfer. 1-c. For purposes of this section, the term "treaty nation" means a foreign country under treaty that provides for the voluntary transfer of persons on the execution of penal sentences entered into by the government of the United States with foreign countries. 2. Persons returned to the custody of the department as parole or conditional release violators shall be delivered to institutions designated in the rules and regulations of the department. 3. Persons who are committed, transferred, certified to or placed in the care or custody of the department as mental defectives shall be delivered to a special institution maintained for the care, treatment, training and custody of mental defectives in accordance with article seventeen of this chapter. 4. Persons who are committed, transferred, certified to or placed in the care or custody of the department while mentally ill shall be delivered to a special institution maintained for the care, treatment and custody of the mentally ill in accordance with article sixteen of this chapter. 5. The commissioner of correction shall file copies of written orders with the clerk of each court having jurisdiction to commit persons to the custody of the department designating the institutions to which persons committed by such court shall be delivered. Such orders may be amended or superseded by the commissioner from time to time and any change shall become effective immediately upon receipt by the clerk of the court. 6. A commitment to a specified institution in the department, rather than to the custody of the department, which is valid in all other respects shall not be void for such reason but shall be deemed a commitment to the custody of the department and the person so committed shall be conveyed to the proper institution as prescribed by this section. 7. Whenever the department receives information that a person committed to the department is a social services recipient and a certificate of conviction and the term of the sentence imposed has not previously been delivered by the sentencing court to the local commissioner of social services pursuant to section 380.80 of the criminal procedure law, the department shall deliver the certificate of conviction and provide notification of the sentence imposed to the commissioner of social services. Such commissioner shall deliver the certificate of conviction and the term of sentence imposed to the appropriate local commissioner of social services. 8. (a) In each year in which the federal decennial census is taken but in which the United States bureau of the census does not implement a policy of reporting incarcerated persons at each such person's residential address prior to incarceration, the department of correctional services shall by September first of that same year deliver to the legislative task force on demographic research and reapportionment the following information for each incarcerated person subject to the jurisdiction of the department and located in this state on the date for which the decennial census reports population: (i) A unique identifier, not including the name, for each such person; (ii) The street address of the correctional facility in which such person was incarcerated at the time of such report; (iii) The residential address of such person prior to incarceration (if any); and(iv) Any additional information as the task force may specify pursuant to law. (b) The department shall provide the information specified in paragraph (a) of this subdivision in such form as the legislative task force on demographic research and reapportionment shall specify.