NY A04373

Creates an 11-member temporary state commission to study local correctional facilities outside cities with populations exceeding one million people.

Commission shall investigate medical and mental health care (including private contractors), overcrowding, inmate deaths, use of force, restraints, segregation, confinement practices, and solitary confinement.

Members appointed by the governor (3), temporary president of the senate (2), senate minority leader (1), speaker of the assembly (2), and assembly minority leader (1); all nine appointed members must reside in counties under the commission's purview and exclude elected officials and local corrections facility employees.

Commission receives unrestricted access to all local correctional facilities, can conduct confidential inmate and employee interviews, and shall hold public hearings in Albany, Buffalo, Plattsburgh, Poughkeepsie, Rochester, Syracuse, and Utica.

Commission shall issue annual reports and submit final report with findings and recommendations to state leadership no later than three years after enactment; act expires three years after effective date.