Int. No. 1090
By Council Members Dromm, Rivera and Lander
A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to requiring the department of correction to report on the sexual abuse of visitors
Be it enacted by the Council as follows:
Section 1. Subdivision a of section 9-140 of the administrative code of the city of New York, as added by local law number 85 for the year 2015, is amended to read as follows:
a. Definitions. For the purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings:
Borough jail facility. The term “borough jail facility” means any department facility in which inmates are housed by the department and that is located outside Rikers Island.
City Jail. The term “city jail” means any department facility in which inmates are housed by the department.
Professional. The term “professional” means a person who is properly identified as providing services or assistance to inmates, including lawyers, doctors, religious advisors, public officials, therapists, counselors, and media representatives.
Sexual Abuse. The term “sexual abuse” has the same meaning set forth in section 115.6 of title 38 of the code of federal regulations, or any successor regulation.
Staff. The term "staff" means anyone, other than an inmate, working at a facility operated by the department.
Visitor. The term “visitor” means any person who enters a city jail with the stated intention of visiting an inmate at any city jail, or any person who is screened by the department for visitation purposes, including but not limited to professionals and any person who registers to visit an inmate in the department’s visitor tracking system.
§ 2. Subdivision b of section 9-140 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding new paragraph 7 and 8 to read as follows:
7. The total number of complaints made to the department regarding sexual abuse of visitors by staff at city jails, the number of such complaints made regarding visitors at borough facilities, and the number of such complaints regarding visitors at Rikers Island. This information shall be reported in total and disaggregated by the gender of such visitor.
8. The number of hours of training conducted for staff who regularly interact with visitors regarding the search of visitors. Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, the information in this paragraph shall be reported on a yearly basis.
§ 3. This local law takes effect immediately, provided that the first report required by paragraph 8 of subdivision b of the administrative code of the city of New York, as added by section 2 of this local law, shall be submitted no later than February 1, 2019.
AS
LS 7664
8/22/2018, 4:16 PM