LATEST UPDATES
STATUS OF CHANGES TO THE MINIMUM STANDARDS
As Reported by the Department of Correction
At the Board of Correction Meeting on July 10, 2008
(Notes by the Legal Aid Society)
Executive training on operational issues for managers has taken place. A training booklet, prepared in part by Richard Wolf, was distributed to the trainees.
Supervisors and line staff are now being trained. This will be completed in about a month.
Material about the changes in the standards has been sent to the Training Academy.
73 DOC staff have been trained on the new standards for telephone monitoring, 36 from intelligence (unit that investigates inmates) and 37 from investigation (unit that investigates staff). These 73 are the only ones authorized to listen to calls. Richard Wolf explained that facility staff should not listen to the calls.
The Do Not Record list has 26,000 phone numbers, with a 7,000 increase in the past month. These are mostly lawyers numbers, and there has not been much inquiry from clergy and physicians. The Department sent out letters about the Do Not Record list, placed an ad in the law journal, and has posted information on its website at http://www.nyc.gov/html/doc/html/how/prevent_recording.shtml.
An operational order on telephone call monitoring has been issued. It was described as 'very stringent with lots of checks and balances.' Recording has begun, but to date no phone calls have been listened to.
A new correspondence directive was issued June 16th and is available on the Department of Correction website by clicking here.
A revised package directive was issued June 16th and is available on the Department of Correction website by clicking here.
A notice about telephone monitoring, correspondence, packages, and publications is posted, in English and Spanish, on the Department? website and can be found by clicking here for English and here for Spanish.
STATUS OF RULE-MAKING PETITION
In addition, the Board approved its new rule on submission, consideration and determination of rulemaking petitions. In a nod to the comments, and for clarification, the Board added back the word "entity" to clarify that petitions presented by others besides individual persons (e.g., organizations such as Legal Aid Society and the Department of Correction) would be covered by the rule. This was the only change from the Board's published proposal, which can be found by clicking here. The rule has been sent to the Law Department for vetting, then will be published in the City Record, and will finally take effect 30 days after publication.
The Board's notice regarding the adoption of the new rule can be found by clicking here. You can also click here for more information about the petition.