New York Assembly Bill A05945 Latest Draft

   
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5945 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN ASSEMBLY February 25, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. DILAN -- read once and referred to the Committee on Correction AN ACT to amend the correction law, in relation to permitting the use of portable electronic devices for making phone calls by incarcerated individuals The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 2 of section 623 of the correction law, as 2 amended by chapter 322 of the laws of 2021, is amended to read as 3 follows: 4 2. The department shall make available either a "prepaid" or "collect 5 call" system, or a combination thereof, for telephone service. Under the 6 "prepaid" system, funds may be deposited into an account in order to pay 7 for station-to-station calls, provided that nothing in this subdivision 8 shall require the department to provide or administer a prepaid system. 9 Under a "collect call" system, call recipients are billed for the cost 10 of an accepted telephone call initiated by an incarcerated individual. 11 Under such "collect call" system, the provider of incarcerated individ- 12 ual telephone service, as an additional means of payment, must permit 13 the recipient of incarcerated individual calls to establish an account 14 with such provider in order to deposit funds to pay for such collect 15 calls in advance. The department shall include as part of its telephone 16 service system the ability to make wireless calls utilizing portable 17 tablet devices or other portable electronic devices. Such wireless 18 device calls shall not substitute for regular phone call availability. 19 The department shall make a reasonable effort to provide these wireless 20 calls free of charge. Such wireless calls shall not be subject to high- 21 er costs than calls placed from telephones. The department shall have 22 the same ability to impose limitations on wireless calls for incarcerat- 23 ed individuals as calls placed from telephones. 24 § 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall 25 have become a law. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD10078-01-5