2023 New York Laws › COR - Correction › Article 16 - Provisions Relating to Mentally Ill Incarcerated Individuals › 401-A - Oversight Responsibilities of the Justice Center for the Protection of People With Special Needs.

§  401-a.  Oversight  responsibilities  of  the justice center for the
  protection of people with special needs. 1. The justice center  for  the
  protection  of  people  with  special  needs  shall  be  responsible for
  monitoring the quality of mental health care  provided  to  incarcerated
  individuals pursuant to article twenty of the executive law. The justice
  center  shall  have direct and immediate access to all areas where state
  prisoners are housed, and to clinical and department records relating to
  incarcerated individuals' clinical conditions. The justice center  shall
  maintain the confidentiality of all patient-specific information.
2. The justice center shall monitor the quality of care in residential
  mental  health  treatment  programs  and  shall  ensure  compliance with
  paragraphs (d) and  (e)  of  subdivision  six  of  section  one  hundred
  thirty-seven  of  this  chapter  and  section  four  hundred one of this
  article. The justice center may recommend  to  the  department  and  the
  office  of  mental  health  that  incarcerated individuals in segregated
  confinement  pursuant  to  subdivision  six  of  section   one   hundred
  thirty-seven of this chapter be evaluated for placement in a residential
  mental  health treatment unit. It may also recommend ways to further the
  goal of diverting and removing  incarcerated  individuals  with  serious
  mental  illness from segregated confinement to residential mental health
  treatment units. The justice center shall include in its  annual  report
  to  the  governor  and  the legislature pursuant to section five hundred
  sixty of the executive law, a description of  the  state's  progress  in
  complying with this article, which shall be publicly available.
3.   The  justice  center  shall  appoint  an  advisory  committee  on
  psychiatric correctional care ("committee"), which shall be composed  of
  independent  mental  health experts and mental health advocates, and may
  include family members of former incarcerated individuals  with  serious
  mental  illness.  Such  committee shall advise the justice center on its
  oversight responsibilities pursuant to this section. The  committee  may
  also  make  recommendations to the justice center regarding improvements
  to prison-based mental health care. Nothing in this subdivision shall be
  deemed to authorize members  of  the  committee  to  have  access  to  a
  correctional  or mental hygiene facility or any part of such a facility.
  Provided, however, newly appointed members  of  the  advisory  committee
  shall  be  provided  with  a tour of a segregated confinement unit and a
  residential  mental  health  treatment  unit,   as   selected   by   the
  commissioner.  Any  such  tour shall be arranged on a date and at a time
  selected by the commissioner and upon such terms and conditions  as  are
  within the sole discretion of the commissioner.
4.  The  justice  center shall assess the department's compliance with
  the provisions of  sections  two,  one  hundred  thirty-seven,  and  one
  hundred  thirty-eight of this chapter relating to segregated confinement
  and residential rehabilitation units and shall issue a public report, no
  less  than  annually,  with  recommendations  to  the   department   and
  legislature,   regarding  all  aspects  of  segregated  confinement  and
  residential  rehabilitation  units  in  state  correctional   facilities
  including  but  not  limited  to  policies and practices concerning: (a)
  placement  of  persons  in  segregated   confinement   and   residential
  rehabilitation  units; (b) special populations; (c) length of time spent
  in such units; (d) hearings and procedures; (e) programs, treatment  and
  conditions  of  confinement  in  such  units;  and  (f)  assessments and
  rehabilitation plans, procedures and discharge determinations.