S 5035: Relates to the department of correction and community supervision's role with respect to discharge planning to assist incarcerated individuals in obtaining housing before release to community supervision.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5035 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE February 18, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sens. SEPULVEDA, COMRIE, ROLISON -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Crime Victims, Crime and Correction AN ACT to amend the correction law, in relation to the department of corrections and community supervision's role with respect to discharge planning to assist incarcerated individuals in obtaining housing before release to community supervision The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 5 of section 201 of the correction law, as 2 amended by chapter 484 of the laws of 2022, is amended to read as 3 follows: 4 5. The department shall assist incarcerated individuals eligible for 5 community supervision and individuals who are on community supervision 6 to secure employment, educational or vocational training, and housing. 7 Any program the department requires a person on community supervision to 8 take as a condition of such supervision shall not unreasonably interfere 9 with such person's employment, educational or vocational training sched- 10 ule unless such program is a residential treatment program. Prior to 11 release, the department shall assist such incarcerated individuals to 12 secure housing by engaging in all necessary discharge planning, includ- 13 ing but not limited to exploring all types of housing resources avail- 14 able and potentially available to the incarcerated individual. In every 15 instance that the department's discharge planning results in release to 16 temporary housing in a shelter regulated pursuant to 18 NYCRR Parts 491 17 and 900, the department shall (a) reimburse the local social services 18 district for the cost of providing such temporary housing in a shelter, 19 (b) provide a report to the local social services district thirty days 20 prior to such discharge that shall include a description of all 21 discharge planning undertaken for the incarcerated individual, and (c) 22 once every thirty days following discharge until the incarcerated indi- EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD09443-01-5 
 S. 5035 2 1 vidual is no longer subject to parole, provide a report to the local 2 social services district describing all continuing assistance the 3 department has provided to the incarcerated individual to obtain housing 4 that is not temporary housing in a shelter regulated pursuant to 18 5 NYCRR Parts 491 and 900 and does not violate the terms of the incarcer- 6 ated individual's parole. 7 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.