Bill Text: NY A09677 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced


Bill Title: Permits the use of portable electronic devices for making phone calls as part of the telephone service system made available to incarcerated individuals.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-04-03 - referred to correction [A09677 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A09677-Introduced.html



                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          9677

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                      April 3, 2024
                                       ___________

        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 permitting the use of
          portable electronic devices for making  phone  calls  by  incarcerated
          individuals

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Subdivision 2 of section 623  of  the  correction  law,  as
     2  amended  by  chapter  322  of  the  laws  of 2021, is amended to read as
     3  follows:
     4    2. The department shall make available either a "prepaid" or  "collect
     5  call" system, or a combination thereof, for telephone service. Under the
     6  "prepaid" system, funds may be deposited into an account in order to pay
     7  for  station-to-station calls, provided that nothing in this subdivision
     8  shall require the department to provide or administer a prepaid  system.
     9  Under  a  "collect call" system, call recipients are billed for the cost
    10  of an accepted telephone call initiated by an  incarcerated  individual.
    11  Under  such "collect call" system, the provider of incarcerated individ-
    12  ual telephone service, as an additional means of  payment,  must  permit
    13  the  recipient  of incarcerated individual calls to establish an account
    14  with such provider in order to deposit funds to  pay  for  such  collect
    15  calls  in advance. The department shall include as part of its telephone
    16  service system the ability to make  wireless  calls  utilizing  portable
    17  tablet  devices  or  other  portable  electronic  devices. Such wireless
    18  device calls shall not substitute for regular phone  call  availability.
    19  The  department shall make a reasonable effort to provide these wireless
    20  calls free of charge.  Such wireless calls shall not be subject to high-
    21  er costs than calls placed from telephones. The  department  shall  have
    22  the same ability to impose limitations on wireless calls for incarcerat-
    23  ed individuals as calls placed from telephones.
    24    §  2.  This  act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
    25  have become a law.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD15003-02-4
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