Overview
- Facilities must install 24-hour surveillance in prisons and local jails, excluding cell interiors, showers and toilets, and DOCCS vehicles must be equipped with fixed cameras.
- The original 72-hour mandate to give death-related footage to the attorney general was removed, shifting to a good-faith submission to the Office of Special Investigation with any additional footage due within 24 hours.
- DOCCS is required to notify a deceased person’s next of kin within 48 hours of a death in custody.
- The law orders a 10-year study of prison deaths, requires autopsy files to include photographs and post-mortem X-rays, expands unannounced facility access and records for the Correctional Association of New York, and pauses the statute of limitations until three years after release.
- Advocates and some legislators praised the measure as progress but noted it falls short of the original bill, and key installation schedules and oversight practices now hinge on implementation by state agencies.