NYS Legislative Session Summary

Policy: Criminal Justice | Policy: HIV/AIDS | Budget: Criminal Justice| Budget: HIV/AIDS

Policy Developments

Criminal Justice

• Reentry: Eight re-entry bills, including two drafted by LAC, were signed into law in July 2010 as part of the NYS budget for 2010-2011.
• Child Support:The signing of the Child Support Bill gives courts the authority to modify child support obligations when there is a reduction in income due to incarceration.
• Human Rights Law: A human rights bill that would help thousands of New Yorkers with criminal histories fight illegal discrimination was vetoed because of cost concerns; LAC will continue to push for this critical legislation next session.
• Health Care in Jails and Prisons:In a change to help improve inmates' health care, the Department of Health HIV/AIDS/Hep C Oversight Law empowers the State Department of Health to review health care -- including HIV and Hepatitis C polices and practices -- in state prisons and local jails.
• Counting Inmates: In a great victory for advocates, the state will now count inmates as residents of the communities where they live, instead of where they are incarcerated, for redistricting purposes.

HIV/AIDS

• Testing and Confidentiality: Monumental changes to the HIV Testing and Confidentiality Law in July 2010 will require providers to offer HIV testing as a routine part of health care, streamline the process for offering and obtaining consent for testing, help to eliminate HIV stigma, and get more people tested.
• Syringe Access: A new law now clarifies syringe access rules in a move toward public health and safety and away from prosecution of people who have obtained the syringes legally. The bill, also signed into law in July 2010, decriminalizes possession of trace amounts of drugs when they are in a used syringe.

Final Budget

Criminal Justice

The final New York State budget for FY 2011 includes a 10% cut proposed by the Executive and completely eliminates nearly $3 million the Legislature has been adding to ATI/reentry programs for many years. Prior to the passage of the final budget and immediately following, LAC was able to convince Executive budget officials to allocate $1.2 million in unspent federal Byrne criminal justice funds to ATI/reentry programs. Then, we approached officials from the Governor’s office and the Division of Criminal Justices Services, explained that the loss of over $2.5 million in legislative funds would decimate the ATI/reentry system, and asked them to identify funds that could be reallocated to those programs to prevent such a disaster from occurring.

DCJS agreed to try to backfill funding for the ATI and reentry programs, and LAC staff worked closely with them all summer toward that critically important goal. We are encouraged to report that DCJS has told us that they are using the $1.2 million we were able to have added to the budget to restore half the funding for up to 13 programs, minus the 10% cut that all non-profits suffered in the budget. DCJS also said it might be able to restore another 45% of these agencies’ funding using other unspent funds. If all this comes to pass, LAC and its partners will have succeeded in convincing the Executive branch to replace funds the Legislature had been providing for many years, no small accomplishment in this most difficult of all budget years.

Our discussions with DCJS have also focused on the 2011-12 year and the importance of trying to ensure that ATI and reentry programs, now as part of DCJS, are included as an Executive budget item. This will be an uphill struggle but a top priority for us.

HIV/AIDS

The Governor vetoed $4.3 million in restorations for the Department of Health/AIDS Institute (DOH/AI), which is the total of his proposed cut in the FY10-11 Executive Budget plus the earlier cut from last year's Deficit Reduction Plan (DRP). Therefore, this is a $4.3 million cut below DOH/AI’s funding level in the original FY09-10 adopted budget. It is unclear what impact the loss of a $2 million sub-allocation from OASAS will have on the DOH/AI budget.

Governor Paterson moved forward with his proposal to consolidate AIDS Institute programs into five broad service categories, down from more than 50 cost centers, despite rejection of the proposal by the Legislature. Operational Support for AIDS Housing (OSAH) was cut by 10% from last year and funded at $982,800. The legislature did approve transferring direct appropriations for the program to the Office of Temporary & Disability Assistance (OTDA), which already administers OSAH and where the program is more closely aligned with the agency's overall mission. Legislators are expected to return to Albany before the month is out in order to authorize spending of $1.4 billion in federal aid for Medicaid and education that was appropriated by Congress earlier this week.

On the city level, the Council passed the FY 2011budget on June 29. While the budget preserved some AIDS housing and other service and capital funding commitments, many social service and safety net programs that received significant budget cuts. New York ATIs were cut by almost 30% this year, a discouraging blow to our Coalition despite significant advocacy and grassroots work with the City Council. Also of special interest and concern was that despite the advocacy efforts of AIDS and housing advocates and the ardent support of several City Council Members and staff, a $1.876 million cut to onsite case management contracts for congregate and scattered site HIV/AIDS supportive housing providers could not be restored.