S 5701: Requires the department of corrections and community supervision to establish discharge plans and reentry services for wrongfully convicted individuals upon their discharge which includes housing needs, educational needs, employment needs, medical needs, and specific social service needs.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5701 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE February 28, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sens. SKOUFIS, BAILEY -- 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 requiring the depart- ment of corrections and community supervision to establish discharge plans and reentry services for wrongfully convicted individuals upon their discharge The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The section heading of section 78 of the correction law, as 2 added by section 81-b of part WWW of chapter 59 of the laws of 2017, is 3 amended to read as follows: 4 Discharge plans and reentry services; juvenile offenders and adoles- 5 cent offenders. 6 § 2. The correction law is amended by adding a new section 78-a to 7 read as follows: 8 § 78-a. Discharge plans and reentry services; wrongfully convicted 9 individuals. 1. Definitions. For the purposes of this section, the term: 10 (a) "wrongfully convicted individual" means a person who has been 11 convicted and subsequently determined to be innocent of the crime for 12 which they were convicted. 13 (b) "discharge plan" means a plan describing the manner in which the 14 wrongfully convicted individual will be able to receive reentry services 15 upon release from the custody of the department to the community. 16 (c) "reentry services" means appropriate programming and support plan- 17 ning offered to a wrongfully convicted individual upon release from the 18 custody of the department to the community, as well as follow-up support 19 offered to the individual after their release. 20 2. Discharge plans and reentry services. Prior to the release of an 21 eligible incarcerated individual from the custody of the department, a 22 designee of the department shall, in consultation with non-profit EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD08280-01-5 
 S. 5701 2 1 providers and in conjunction with such wrongfully convicted individual, 2 develop and offer to such individual a discharge plan. Such discharge 3 plan shall: 4 (a) be designed to address the unique needs of the wrongfully 5 convicted individual, including, but not limited to, the individual's 6 geographic location upon release from the custody of the department, 7 housing needs, educational needs, employment needs, medical needs, and 8 specific social service needs. 9 (b) provide access to reentry services including, but not be limited 10 to, case management and connections to employment services, educational 11 services, mental health services, medical care, housing services, and 12 other social services that may be available to such wrongfully convicted 13 individual upon their release. 14 § 3. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall 15 have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or 16 repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of 17 this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and completed 18 on or before such effective date.