New York Laws
Article 29 - General Provisions Relating to In-Patient Facilities
29.27 - Incarcerated Individual-Patients Placed in the Custody of the Department.

(a) As used in this section, the term "incarcerated
individual-patient" means a person committed pursuant to the provisions
of article sixteen of the correction law to the custody of the
department of mental hygiene for care and treatment.
(b) The commissioner shall provide a facility or facilities in which
incarcerated individual-patients may be retained for care and treatment.
(c) An incarcerated individual-patient may be retained for care and
treatment in the facility designated by the commissioner for the period
stated in the order committing the incarcerated individual-patient to
the custody of the department unless sooner transferred or discharged in
accordance with law. If the incarcerated individual-patient requires
inpatient care and treatment for mental illness beyond such authorized
period, the director of the facility where he or she is kept in custody
shall apply for an order of retention or subsequent orders of retention
in accordance with the procedures set forth in article nine of this
chapter for the retention of patients. The provisions of this chapter
applying to the rights of patients with respect to notices, hearings,
judicial review, writ of habeas corpus, and the services of the mental
hygiene legal service shall apply to incarcerated individual-patients
except that in no case shall an incarcerated individual-patient be
discharged or released from custody prior to the time that such
incarcerated individual-patient has completed his or her term of
imprisonment or that his or her release from custodial confinement in
the correctional facility or jail from which he or she was delivered to
the department has been duly authorized.
(d) During the period of his or her custody in the department of
mental hygiene pursuant to this section, an incarcerated
individual-patient shall be entitled to the rights to care and treatment
set forth in section 15.03 of this chapter and to such other rights
granted to patients by this chapter, as determined by regulation of the
commissioner, which are not inconsistent with his or her status as a
person legally subject to confinement in a correctional facility or jail
or with the mandate of secure custody of such incarcerated
individual-patient.
(e) When the director of the facility in which the incarcerated
individual-patient is in custody finds that the incarcerated
individual-patient is no longer mentally ill or no longer requires
hospitalization for care and treatment, he or she shall so notify the
incarcerated individual-patient and commissioner of corrections and
community supervision or, in the case of an incarcerated
individual-patient coming from a jail or correctional institution
operated by local government, the officer in charge of the jail or
correctional institution from which the incarcerated individual-patient
was committed. The commissioner of corrections and community supervision
or such officer, as the case may be, shall immediately arrange to take
such incarcerated individual-patient into custody and return him or her
to a correctional facility or to the jail or correctional institution
operated by local government.
(f) Upon delivery of the incarcerated individual-patient to the
representative of the commissioner of corrections and community
supervision or of an officer in charge of a jail or correctional
institution operated by local government, the responsibility of the
department and its facilities for the custody of the incarcerated
individual-patient shall terminate. Where the incarcerated individual is
returned to a state correctional facility, the department shall continue
to be responsible for the incarcerated individual-patient's psychiatric

care if the incarcerated individual-patient upon his or her return is in
a program established pursuant to section four hundred one of the
correction law.
(g) If an incarcerated individual-patient in the custody of the
department escapes from custody, immediate notice shall be given to the
commissioner of corrections and community supervision or, in the case of
an incarcerated individual-patient coming from a jail or correctional
institution operated by local government, to the officer in charge of
such jail or correctional institution. Notice shall also be given to
appropriate law enforcement authorities.
(h) The cost of care and treatment of an incarcerated
individual-patient in a department facility shall be a charge upon the
department if the incarcerated individual-patient was committed from a
state correctional facility or upon the local government from which the
incarcerated individual-patient was committed.
(i) Upon release of an incarcerated individual-patient from a
facility, the director shall forward a copy of all health and
psychiatric records to the commissioner of corrections and community
supervision or to the officer in charge of a jail or correctional
institution operated by local government, as the case may be.
(j) If the sentence for which an incarcerated individual-patient is
confined expires or is vacated or modified by court order, the director
shall so notify the commissioner of corrections and community
supervision or such officer in charge of a jail or correctional
institution operated by local government, as appropriate.