Crime Committee Report e.indd - New York State Senate

Chapter 337 of the Laws of 2009
S.5645 HASSELL-THOMPSON / A 8521 Aubry
Erroneous Sentences
Signed into law by Governor Paterson, this legislation requires the Department of Correctional
Services (“DOCS”) to notify the district attorney, the inmate’s defense counsel and the
sentencing court, whenever it is of the opinion that the sentence was illegal. Moreover, this bill
authorizes the district attorney, at the court’s direction to ensure the inmate is promptly produced
in court to participate in the issue of re-sentencing. Prior to this law the New York Judiciary
was in the middle of what was reported as the “post release supervision” controversy; that
is, a situation where hundreds of defendants were not properly sentenced by the court. This
new law provides a stated process, requiring the prison system to contact all parties; authorizing
the court or district attorney to produce the defendant in court; notifying the defense attorney
of the issues so that representation can be prepared; and constructs an avenue for the court to
correct illegal sentences in an expeditious manner.
Constitutional Amendment
S.4124 HASSELL-THOMPSON, DIAZ, MONSERRATE, VOLKER / A 5598 Aubry
Passed to amend the State Constitution by referendum of the People of the State of New
York, this joint Senate-Assembly resolution, passed in two distinct legislative sessions, allows a
law to be passed to permit prisoners to voluntarily perform work for nonprofit organizations.
Non-profit organizations means an organization operated exclusively for religious, charitable,
or educational purposes, no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any
private shareholder or individual. Prior to this law section 24 of article 3 of the New York State
Constitution prohibited the “farming out, contracting, giving away or selling of convict labor.”
However, many localities had requested that an exemption be made for nonprofit organizations
who are often underfunded and do not have the resources to adequately maintain their
property. The law did permit inmates to work in state and public institutions and many of the
nonprofit organizations engaged in public works and charities. This constitutional amendment
was initiated by Senator Dale Volker during the first required session vote and taken to the finish
line by Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson, a republican and democratic member respectively.
This amendment appeared on the ballots during the 2009 statewide elections in New York
State and was authorized by a favorable vote of the electorate.
Chapter 57 of the Laws of 2010
S.6725 SCHNEIDERMAN, ADAMS, BRESLIN, DILAN, DUANE, ESPADA, HASSELL-THOMPSON,
HUNTLEY, KRUEGER, MONTGOMERY, ONORATO, OPPENHEIMER, PARKER, PERKINS,
SAVINO, SERRANO, SQUADRON, STAVISKY, STEWART-COUSINS, THOMPSON
Prison Gerrymandering
The purpose of this bill is to count people in prison at their addresses prior to incarceration
for the purposes of redistricting.
Currently, the United States Bureau of the Census includes everyone housed in federal, state,
and local correctional facilities in its count of the general population of the Census block that
contains the facility. The state’s current reliance on the Census Bureau’s flawed prison counts
when drawing legislative districts, violates federal law in two ways: it dilutes minority voting
strength in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965; and it violates the one person,
one vote principle of the Equal protection Clause, which requires voting districts to have
equal numbers of residents (because people in prison are not residents of the districts where
they are incarcerated and counted).
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New York State Senate