New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision

The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (NYSDOCCS) is the department of the New York State government[1] responsible for the care, confinement, and rehabilitation of inmates.

New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision
Flag of the State of New York
AbbreviationNYSDOCCS
Agency overview
Preceding agencies
Employees31,300
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdictionNew York, United States
General nature
Operational structure
HeadquartersAlbany, New York
Sworn members23,000
Agency executive
Facilities
Prisons52
Website
Official website
Former name:
New York State Department of Correctional Services
(1971–2011)

It is responsible for the care, confinement, and rehabilitation of approximately 54,700 inmates at 54 correctional facilities funded by the State of New York,[2] and currently supervises 36,500 parolees at seven regional offices.[3] The department employs a staff of approximately 31,300 individuals, including approximately 23,000 uniformed correction officers, and is currently the 12th largest state prison system in the United States.[4] Its regulations are compiled in title 7 of the New York Codes, Rules and Regulations.

In response to falling crime rates and prison populations in New York State, the Department has closed a number of facilities between 2009 and 2014.[5] On April 1, 2011, the New York State Division of Parole merged with the New York State Department of Correctional Services to form the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.[6][7]

Mission

The mission of NYSDOCCS is to provide for public protection by administering a network of correctional facilities that:

  • Retain inmates in safe custody until released by law;
  • Offer inmates an opportunity to improve their employment potential and their ability to function in a non-criminal fashion;
  • Offer staff a variety of opportunities for career enrichment and advancement; and,
  • Offer stable and humane "community" environments in which all participants, staff and inmates, can perform their required tasks with a sense of satisfaction.

History

The New York State prison system had its beginnings in 1797 with a single prison called Newgate located in New York City. A second state prison opened 20 years later in Auburn in 1817, and in 1825 a group of Auburn prisoners made the voyage across the Erie Canal and down the Hudson River to begin building Sing Sing.

Historians have not described the prison system of New York State in the 19th century in a favorable light - with employment positions being awarded based on the spoils system, employees being characterized as largely corrupt, and the use of prisoners to gain favorable manufacturing contracts.[8]

The state commissioned architect Alfred Hopkins to design three major institutions built between 1933 and 1935: Wallkill Correctional Facility, Woodbourne Correctional Facility and Coxsackie Correctional Facility. All three were designed on progressive principles, reflected a concern for aesthetics and a sense of place, and had no surrounding walls or fences.[9] That has changed.

Between its founding and the year 1973, New York had operated only 18 prisons. After the new focus on prison administration brought by the Attica Prison riot in September 1971, and a new influx of prisoners created by the new stricter Rockefeller Drug Laws starting in 1973, the corrections system was forced to expand dramatically.[10] Corrections acquired a number of older state-owned properties from other agencies during the 1970s, some with expansive acreage and Edwardian structures, such as the Adirondack Correctional Facility in 1971 (originally the Ray Brook Sanatorium, founded in 1904) the Otisville Correctional Facility in 1976 (on the grounds of a former tuberculosis sanitarium founded in 1906), and the Mount McGregor Correctional Facility in 1976 (with a varied history since its opening in 1913, operated from 1969 through 1976 as the Wilton State School by the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene).

The growth continued in another way through the 1980s. A huge prison construction initiative took the form of "cookie-cutter" facilities, fifteen different medium-security installations such as Washington Correctional Facility in 1985, built with the same blueprints,[11] the same dorms and messhalls, as Franklin, Mohawk, Bare Hill, etc. Many of the 15 opened in 1988. Two of these, Riverview and Cape Vincent, were initially funded and owned by New York City to shuttle city prisoners by air, as a way to address the city's jail overpopulation crisis.[12]

From its peak in 1999, at 72,649, the total state prison population had dropped to 52,237 by August 1, 2016, a decrease of 28 percent.[13] Rapidly decreasing numbers of inmates has meant many prisons closed, with the loss of jobs in mostly rural communities, and pressure to consolidate further.[14]

As of 2016, New York did not contract with private prisons, according to state law.[15]

Training of correction officers

Newly appointed Correction Officer Trainees will be required to participate in, and satisfactorily complete, all requirements of a 12-month training program before they can advance to Correction Officer. As part of the program, recruits will attend the Correctional Services Training Academy for a minimum of eight weeks of formal training. Paid training at the Academy will include academic courses in such areas as emergency response procedures, interpersonal communications, firearms, unarmed defensive tactics, legal rights and responsibilities, security procedures, and concepts and issues in corrections. Recruits will also receive rigorous physical training to develop fitness, strength and stamina. To physically qualify, it is necessary to perform seven sequential job related tasks in two minutes and fifteen seconds or less. Failure in any of the tasks will result in the recruit failing to meet the agency qualification standards and, accordingly, being dismissed from the Academy. The test is administered during the first and seventh week of the training program at the Academy. A thorough explanation and demonstration of the course, and an opportunity for a trial run, will precede the final test.[16]

Power and authority of correction officers

New York State correction officers have peace officer status statewide under Criminal Procedure Law § 2.10; this authorizes them:

  • The power to make warrantless arrests pursuant to Criminal Procedure Law § 140.25[17]
  • The power to use physical force and deadly physical force in making an arrest or preventing an escape pursuant to Penal Law § 35.30[18]
  • The power to carry out warrantless searches whenever such searches are constitutionally permissible and acting pursuant to their duties, in accordance with Criminal Procedure Law § 2.20[19]
  • The power to possess and take custody of firearms not owned by the peace officer, for the purpose of disposing, guarding, or any other lawful purpose, consistent with his or her duties as a peace officer, pursuant to Criminal Procedure Law § 2.20[19]
  • The power to issue certain summonses and appearance tickets when acting pursuant to their duties, in accordance with Criminal Procedure Law § 2.20[19]

New York State correction officers are also authorized to carry firearms.

Rank Structure

From highest to lowest title, the command structure for correction officers and their civilian administrators is as follows:

Title Insignia
Commissioner
Deputy Commissioner
Superintendent
Deputy Superintendent for Security (Major)
Captain
Lieutenant
Sergeant
Correction Officer
Correction Officer - Trainee

Parole Officers

Parole Officers are law enforcement officers within the department who aid, assist and supervise offenders released from correctional facilities to serve a period of post-release supervision. Parole Officers are responsible for providing public safety and community protection, while working with community-based organizations to deliver needed services and supervision to releasees. Parole Officers perform both social work and law enforcement functions, and work to develop a supervision plan for each releasee; they also assess and evaluate the adequacy of each releasee's community adjustment and intervene when the releasee's behavior threatens that adjustment. The parole officer, in consultation with his or her supervisor, determines when and under what circumstances delinquency action is warranted. The parole officer works to ensure that individuals released from prison by order of the Board of Parole and by statute live and remain at liberty in the community without violating the law. When a parolee or conditional releasee violates their conditions of release, the parole officer may take the subject into custody with or without a warrant, and will typically return them to the nearest correctional facility. Parole Officers are usually assigned to area field offices, which are located in many of the major cities throughout New York State. Parole Officers have peace officer status statewide pursuant to Criminal Procedure Law § 2.10.

Commissioners

Facilities
See main List of New York state prisons

[22]

Characteristics of New York State prisons

In part as a response to the Attica Prison riot of 1971, a number of measures were taken to avoid future confrontations and reduce tensions. All New York State correctional facilities have monthly meetings between elected prisoner representatives and the prison administration, at which prisoners may present their concerns. A grievance process was instituted, by which prisoners may grieve any employee whom they feel is acting in violation of regulations. Packages may be received year-round.

At some medium-security prisons, facilities for conjugal visits are available for carefully selected inmates, including same-sex married couples. New York State is one of only four states with conjugal visits in 2014.

New York State does not have any privately run prisons, and it runs its own health service to treat prisoners.

New York State has also been the national leader in reducing prison population and closing prisons. The reduction is both due to lower crime rates and to diversion of offenders into alternative programs.

Unionization

In labor negotiations, the officers are represented by the New York State Correctional Officers and Peace officer's Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA).[23]

Death row
Main article: Capital punishment in New York (state)

Prior to the 2008 repeal of the death penalty, the male death row was at the Clinton Correctional Facility and the female death row was at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility.[24] The execution chamber was located at the Green Haven Correctional Facility.[25]

Capital punishment was reinstated in New York in 1995 when Governor George Pataki signed a new statute into law, which provided for execution by lethal injection. On June 24, 2004, in the case People v. LaValle, the New York Court of Appeals struck down the statute as unconstitutional under the New York Constitution (at the time, only two individuals were under a sentence of death). Although seven individuals were sentenced to death, no one was executed, and the Court of Appeals later commuted the sentence of the final individual under a sentence of death in New York on October 23, 2007, in the case People v. John Taylor. In July 2008, Governor David Paterson issued an executive order requiring the disestablishment of death row and the closure of the state's execution chamber at Green Haven Correctional Facility.[26]

Previously inmates were executed at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility.[27]

Fallen officers

32 New York state corrections officers have died in the line of duty.[28]

See also

References
  1. Correction Law § 5(1). "There shall be in the state government a department of corrections and community supervision. The head of the department shall be the commissioner of corrections and community supervision[...]"
  2. "Fewer prisoners less crime" (PDF). sentencingproject.org. Retrieved 2020-01-04.
  3. "NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision".
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2006-08-22. Retrieved 2006-08-22.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. "NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision". www.doccs.ny.gov.
  6. "NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision". www.doccs.ny.gov.
  7. "Data" (PDF).
  8. Timothy J. Gilfoyle (2006). A Pickpocket's Tale: The Underworld of Nineteenth-Century New York. W. W. Norton Company. ISBN 978-0393329896.
  9. Joseph F., Spillane (9 May 2014). Coxsackie: The Life and Death of Prison Reform. JHU Press. p. 48. ISBN 9781421413228. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
  10. Pfeiffer, Mary Beth (2 October 2011). "Analysis: NY Prison Population's Dramatic Drop". nbcnewyork.com. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
  11. "Washington Correctional Facility" (Prison Monitoring Report). Correctional Association of New York. 12 January 2011. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
  12. Fine, Thomas (4 January 1992). "NYC Offers to Resell Prisons". Syracuse Post-Standard. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
  13. "DOCCS FACT SHEET 8/1/2016" (PDF). NYS DOCCS. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
  14. Spector, Joseph (9 May 2011). "Study Shows NY Corrections Running 88% Capacity". corrections.com. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
  15. "Corrections statue section 121". New York State Senate. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  16. "NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision".
  17. "Arrest without a warrant; by peace officer". NY State Senate. December 21, 2019.
  18. "Justification; use of physical force in making an arrest or in preventing an escape". NY State Senate. December 14, 2019.
  19. "Powers of peace officers". NY State Senate. December 21, 2019.
  20. "NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision".
  21. New York Legislative Manual (118 ed.). Albany: The Secretary of State of New York. 1944. p. 630.
  22. https://doccs.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2019/12/facility-map-2019.pdf
  23. Schwirtz, Michael; Winerip, Michael; Gebeloff, Robert (3 December 2016). "The Scourge of Racial Bias in New York State's Prisons". New York Times. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  24. "Repeal of Death Sentence Regulations (Section 103.45 of 7 NYCRR)" (Archive). New York State Department of Correctional Services. Retrieved on September 2, 2010. "Repeal regulations requiring death sentence warrants to be provided to the Commissioner and persons sentenced to death to be delivered to Clinton and Bedford Hills Correctional Facilities (death row)[...]"
  25. "Inmate 99-B-0067" (Archive). New York State Department of Correctional Services. Saturday January 16, 1999. Retrieved on September 2, 2010."Monroe County Sheriff's Department officers transported Mateo at 4:45 a.m. today to the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora in Clinton County, location of the Unit for Condemned Prisoners (UCP) who are male[...]The UCP at Clinton has been physically operable for use since August 31, 1995, the day before the death penalty law took effect, as has a similar three-cell UCP for females at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County plus the single-cell death house at Green Haven Correctional Facility in Stormville in Dutchess County. Neither of the two latter units will be staffed until there are inmates on them."
  26. Scott, Brendan. "GOV PULLS SWITCH ON DEATH CELL" (Archive). New York Daily News. July 24, 2008. Retrieved on September 2, 2010. "The Department of Correctional Services has quietly struck from the books a 40-year-old rule that designated the upstate Green Haven Correctional Facility the state's "Capital Punishment Unit."[...] Although seven defendants were sentenced to death after then-Gov. George Pataki, a Republican, signed the law, the death house has never hosted an execution.[...]"
  27. "Department Receives First Death Penalty Inmate." New York State Department of Correctional Services. July 22, 1998. Retrieved on September 2, 2010.
  28. "New York State Department of Correctional Services, NY". The Officer Down Memorial Page (ODMP).
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