NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A5941
SPONSOR: Dilan TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the correction law, in relation to the removal of incar-
cerated individuals diagnosed with mental illness to a residential
mental health treatment unit
PURPOSE:
To keep seriously mentally ill incarcerated individuals out of solitary
confinement once they have been diagnosed with a qualifying mental
illness.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends Correction Law § 137(6) (d)(i).
Section 2 amends Correction Law § 137(6)(e)(i). Section 3 provides an
effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
When an incarcerated individual with serious mental illness moves
through the correctional system, he or she sees different mental health
providers in different facilities and may have differing severity of
symptoms at different times. An incarcerated individual who has a mental
disorder that qualifies him or her to be excluded from solitary confine-
ment housing units under State law may lose the qualifying diagnosis
because of a change in treatment providers, a beneficial response to
drugs or therapy, or a period of relative mental stability or lack of
symptoms. Additionally, when a person with a long-standing diagnosis in
the community first comes into prison, prison-based treatment providers
may not take his or her previous mental health records into account or
agree with the community providers diagnosis, and may misdiagnose the
incarcerated individual or fail to recognize mental health symptoms that
are cyclical in nature.
Incarcerated individuals who have Axis I mental health disorders like
schizophrenia and bipolar disorder or other Severe mental illnesses are
prone to relapse, vulnerable to stress and are very likely to find them-
selves in violation of DOCCS rules concerning incarcerated individual
behavior during periods of active mental illness. If such incarcerated
individuals are not protected by law, they will often wind up in disci-
plinary confinement in special housing units where they are locked in
their cells 23 hours a day, cannot phone home, have limited property,
cannot attend programs or religious services, and are generally locked
down without stabilizing support systems.
Being labeled as "seriously mentally ill" in the prison system means
that an incarcerated individual cannot be placed in a solitary confine-
ment unit for more than thirty days but must be placed instead in a
residential mental health treatment unit when he or she misbehaves and
incurs a disciplinary sanction. The purpose of this bills to ensure that
incarcerated individuals with qualifying diagnoses, whether made by OM11
prison-based staff or community mental health providers, will not be
downgraded from the "seriously mentally ill" status that guarantees they
will serve any disciplinary sanctions in a treatment unit rather in than
solitary confinement.
The bill provides that such incarcerated individuals will go to treat-
ment units even if they have been removed from the OMB caseload or had
their diagnosis changed by a later psychiatrist to a non-qualifying
diagnosis. It does not affect the ability of the treatment provider to
change the diagnosis, but simply protects such vulnerable incarcerated
individuals from being placed in long term solitary confinement. People
with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder do not get cured, but with
treatment, care and flexibility they can often manage their mental
illnesses. Such management is not possible in solitary confinement.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
01/31/17 referred to correction
01/03/18 referred to correction
01/05/2022 Passed the Assembly
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Unknown but appropriate mental health treatment should save the state
money in the long run. Additionally, there are currently vacant beds in
the treatment units, and with the settlement in Peoples v. Fischer,
fewer incarcerated individuals should have long SHU sanctions, freeing
up more treatment beds.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
30 days after the bill becomes law.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5941
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 25, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. DILAN -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Correction
AN ACT to amend the correction law, in relation to the removal of incar-
cerated individuals diagnosed with mental illness to a residential
mental health treatment unit
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subparagraph (i) of paragraph d of subdivision 6 of section
2 137 of the correction law, as separately amended by chapters 93 and 322
3 of the laws of 2021, is amended to read as follows:
4 (i) Except as set forth in clause (E) of subparagraph (ii) of this
5 paragraph, the department, in consultation with mental health clini-
6 cians, shall divert or remove an incarcerated [individuals] individual
7 who at any time has been diagnosed with a serious mental illness, as
8 defined in subparagraphs (i), (iii), (iv) and (v) of paragraph (e) of
9 this subdivision, from segregated confinement or confinement in a resi-
10 dential rehabilitation unit, where such confinement could potentially be
11 for a period in excess of thirty days, to a residential mental health
12 treatment unit. Nothing in this paragraph shall be deemed to prevent the
13 disciplinary process from proceeding in accordance with department rules
14 and regulations for disciplinary hearings.
15 § 2. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall
16 have become a law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD10073-01-5
