NY A06482

Creates an 11-member temporary state commission to study local correctional facilities outside New York City, with emphasis on medical and mental health care, overcrowding, deaths, use of force, restraints, and solitary confinement practices.

Commission membership includes the chairman of the state commission of correction, executive director of an independent advocacy agency, and nine appointed members (three by governor, one each by senate minority leader and assembly minority leader, two each by senate president pro tempore and assembly speaker).

Grants commission unrestricted access to all local correctional facilities, including confidential inmate and employee interviews and unredacted documents, with limited exceptions for confidential state or federal records.

Requires commission to hold at least one public hearing in each of seven upstate cities (Albany, Buffalo, Plattsburgh, Poughkeepsie, Rochester, Syracuse, and Utica) and issue annual reports with final report due within three years.

Commission expires and is repealed three years after the act takes effect; members receive no compensation but are reimbursed for actual expenses.