S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
       ________________________________________________________________________
                                         4965
                              2015-2016 Regular Sessions
                                   I N  S E N A T E
                                    April 24, 2015
                                      ___________
       Introduced  by  Sen. RITCHIE -- 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 notice of transfer of
         sex offender to psychiatric hospital
         THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
       BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
    1    Section 1. Paragraph  a  of  subdivision  2  of  section  508  of  the
    2  correction  law, as amended by chapter 283 of the laws of 2002, and such
    3  subdivision as renumbered by chapter 33 of the laws of 2009, is  amended
    4  to read as follows:
    5    2.  a.  If  a  physician to a jail or in case of a vacancy a physician
    6  acting as such and the warden or jailer certify in writing that a  pris-
    7  oner  confined  in  a  jail  either  in a civil cause or upon a criminal
    8  charge is in such a state of mental health that he is in need of  invol-
    9  untary  care  and  treatment and in their opinion should be removed to a
   10  psychiatric hospital for treatment, the warden  or  jailer  shall  imme-
   11  diately  notify  the  director  who  shall  have  the responsibility for
   12  providing treatment for such prisoner. If such director  after  examina-
   13  tion  of  the prisoner by an examining physician designated by him shall
   14  determine that such prisoner is in need of involuntary care  and  treat-
   15  ment,  the director shall file an application for the involuntary hospi-
   16  talization of such prisoner pursuant  to  article  nine  of  the  mental
   17  hygiene  law  in a hospital operated by the department of mental hygiene
   18  or in the case of a prisoner confined in a jail  in  a  city  or  county
   19  which  maintains or operates a general hospital containing a psychiatric
   20  prison ward approved by the department of mental hygiene to such  prison
   21  ward for care and treatment or to any other psychiatric hospital if such
   22  prison  ward  is filled to capacity. Such application shall be supported
   23  by the certificate of two physicians in accordance with the requirements
   24  of section 9.27 of the mental hygiene law and  thereupon  such  prisoner
        EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                             [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                  LBD07578-01-5
       S. 4965                             2
    1  shall be admitted forthwith to the hospital in which such application is
    2  filed, and the procedures of the mental hygiene law governing the hospi-
    3  talization  of such prisoner. The jailer or warden having custody of the
    4  prisoner  shall  deliver  the  prisoner  to  the hospital with which the
    5  director has filed the application.  If  such  jailer  or  warden  shall
    6  certify  that  such  prisoner  has  a  mental illness which is likely to
    7  result in serious harm to himself or others and  for  which  care  in  a
    8  psychiatric  hospital  is appropriate such jailer or warden shall effect
    9  the admission of such prisoner to a  hospital  forthwith  in  accordance
   10  with  the  provisions  of section 9.37 or 9.39 of the mental hygiene law
   11  and the hospital shall admit such prisoner. Upon admission of the  pris-
   12  oner,  pursuant  to  section 9.37 or 9.39 of the mental hygiene law, the
   13  jailer or warden shall notify the director, the prisoner's attorney, and
   14  his family, where information about the family is available.  WHERE  THE
   15  PRISONER  IS  A  SEX OFFENDER, AS DEFINED PURSUANT TO SUBDIVISION ONE OF
   16  SECTION ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-EIGHT-A OF THIS CHAPTER, THE  JAILER OR WARDEN
   17  SHALL ALSO NOTIFY THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY WHO PROSECUTED THE SEX  OFFENDER
   18  OF  THE  TRANSFER  TO THE PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL. While the prisoner is in
   19  the hospital he shall remain in the custody under  sufficient  guard  of
   20  the jailer or warden in charge of the jail from which he came. A prison-
   21  er  admitted to a psychiatric hospital pursuant to section 9.27, 9.37 or
   22  9.39 of the mental hygiene law may be retained at the hospital  pursuant
   23  to the provisions of the mental hygiene law until he has improved suffi-
   24  ciently  in  his  mental  illness  so  that hospitalization is no longer
   25  necessary or until ordered by the court  to  be  returned  to  the  jail
   26  whichever  comes first and in either event, the prisoner shall thereupon
   27  be returned to jail. The cost of the care and treatment of such  prison-
   28  ers  in the hospital shall be defrayed in accordance with the provisions
   29  of the mental hygiene law in such cases provided.
   30    From the time of admission of a prisoner  to  a  hospital  under  this
   31  section  the  retention of such prisoner for care and treatment shall be
   32  subject to the provisions  for  notice,  hearing,  review  and  judicial
   33  approval  of  continued  retention  or  transfer and continued retention
   34  provided by article nine of the mental hygiene law for the admission and
   35  retention of involuntary patients.
   36    S 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day  after  it  shall
   37  have become a law.