NY Law Says Prisoners who are Parents Must be Jailed as Close to Their Children as Possible

By Yehudit Garmaise     

   Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed a new law in New York that requires prisoners who are parents to be incarcerated in the prisons that are closest to the homes of their children.

  Sadly, more than 100,000 children in New York have at least one parent in prison, and many of those parents are serving time in facilities that require family members to drive for several hours each way for visits. 

    “Children should not be deprived of the opportunity to have relationships with their parents because of incarceration,” said State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, a Brooklyn Democrat who sponsored the bill, which easily passed both houses of the state legislature.

   In addition, in-person visits not only lowers the chances that prisoners will be incarcerated again, pointed out Assemblywoman Nily Rozic, a Queens Democrat, but in-person family visits are a critical factor in determining whether upon release, prisoners reunite with their families.

(Mike Groll/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)