Requires foster care records of incarcerated individuals to be sent to the correctional facility.
Summary
A00696 would amend the New York correction law to require the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to obtain foster care records for any person committed to its custody who has a history in the foster care system. The records would include, at minimum, the age at which the person entered foster care and the length of time they remained in care.
The bill also requires that a copy of those records be delivered to the correctional facility where the person is incarcerated, and it expressly includes juvenile detention facilities within that definition. The measure takes effect immediately upon enactment.
Impact
The bill would create a new statutory duty for DOCCS to identify incarcerated people with foster care histories and secure relevant records from the social services system. It would also require correctional and juvenile detention facilities to receive those records, likely affecting intake, classification, case planning, and access to background information for incarcerated individuals with child welfare involvement. The amendment would add a new subdivision to section 71 of the correction law and expand the operational responsibilities of both correctional facilities and the agencies holding foster care records.
Sentiment
No committee transcript or vote data is available, so there is no recorded debate or roll-call history to indicate support or opposition. Based on the bill text and caption, the measure appears framed as an administrative and information-sharing reform focused on people with foster care histories in custody. The available materials do not show any formal sentiment from legislators, advocates, or agencies.
Contention
Because there are no transcripts or votes, no specific points of contention are documented in the provided materials. Potential areas of concern, based on the bill’s requirements, could include privacy and confidentiality of foster care records, interagency data-sharing burdens, and the logistics of obtaining and transmitting records for incarcerated or detained individuals. However, these issues are not expressly raised in the supplied record.
Relates to required notification of an incarcerated individual's emergency contacts when such incarcerated individual experiences a serious medical event; provides that incarcerated individuals and their representatives shall have the right to access such incarcerated individual's medical records; provides requirements for access to such medical records; establishes an independent medical oversight body to monitor and evaluate the quality of medical care provided to incarcerated individuals within correctional facilities and to ensure compliance with constitutional and statutory requirements for adequate medical care; provides penalties for certain violations; requires the department of corrections and community supervision to collect data on medical incidents, response times, and correctional facility compliance with certain requirements, and to publish an annual report detailing such data.
Establishes a digital legal mail program for the delivery of privileged correspondences to incarcerated individuals housed at correctional facilities; requires law offices sending legal mail via digital platforms to incarcerated individuals to register with the department of corrections.
Relates to the health, safety and human rights of incarcerated pregnant individuals, incarcerated birthing parents and their children; requires the commissioner of corrections and community supervision to establish rules and regulations relating to conditions in institutions and correctional facilities and the treatment and care of birthing parents in such institutions and facilities.
Relates to the health, safety and human rights of incarcerated pregnant individuals, incarcerated birthing parents and their children; requires the commissioner of corrections and community supervision to establish rules and regulations relating to conditions in institutions and correctional facilities and the treatment and care of birthing parents in such institutions and facilities.
Requires the commissioner of corrections and community supervision to make correctional facility water testing results accessible directly, upon request, to incarcerated individuals and correctional facility staff in such facilities and make such water testing results available to the public on the website of the department.