New York Laws
Article 22 - Miscellaneous Provisions
622 - Sex Offender Treatment Program.

§ 622. Sex offender treatment program. 1. The department shall make
available a sex offender treatment program for those incarcerated
individuals who are serving sentences for felony sex offenses, or for
other offenses defined in subdivision (p) of section 10.03 of the mental
hygiene law, and are identified as having a need for such program in
accordance with sections eight hundred three and eight hundred five of
this chapter. In developing the treatment program, the department shall
give due regard to standards, guidelines, best practices, and
qualifications recommended by the office of sex offender management. The
department shall make such treatment programs available sufficiently in
advance of the time of the incarcerated individual's consideration by
the case review team, pursuant to section 10.05 of the mental hygiene
law, so as to allow the incarcerated individual to complete the
treatment program prior to that time.

2. The primary purpose of the program shall be to reduce the
likelihood of reoffending by assisting such offenders to control their
chain of behaviors that lead to sexual offending. The length of
participation for each incarcerated individual to achieve successful
completion shall be dependent upon the initial assessment of the
incarcerated individual's specific needs and the degree of progress made
by the incarcerated individual as a participant but shall not be less
than six months.

3. The department's sex offender treatment program shall include
residential programs, which shall require that at each correctional
facility where the residential program is provided, incarcerated
individual participants shall be housed within the same housing area in
order to provide clinically appropriate treatment, and to provide a more
structured and controlled setting.

4. Each residential program shall be staffed with a licensed
psychologist who shall provide clinical supervision to the treatment
staff, review, approve and modify treatment plans as appropriate for
individual incarcerated individuals, provide clinical assessments for
participating incarcerated individuals, observe and participate in group
sessions and make treatment recommendations. Each residential program
shall also be staffed with a licensed clinical social worker or other
mental health professional who shall be knowledgeable about the
administration of testing instruments that are designed to measure the
degree of a sex offender's psychopathy and his or her program needs. The
assigned licensed psychologist shall also be knowledgeable about the
application of such testing instruments.

5. Any incarcerated individual committed to the custody of the
department on or after the effective date of this section for a felony
sex offense, or for any of the other offenses listed in subdivision (p)
of section 10.03 of the mental hygiene law, shall, as soon as
practicable, be initially assessed by staff of the office of mental
health who shall be knowledgeable regarding the diagnosis, treatment,
assessment or evaluation of sex offenders. The assessment shall include,
but not be limited to, the determination of the degree to which the
incarcerated individual presents a risk of violent sexual recidivism and
his or her need for sex offender treatment while in prison.

6. Staff of the office of mental health and the office for people with
developmental disabilities may be consulted about the incarcerated
individual's treatment needs and may assist in providing any additional
treatment services determined to be clinically appropriate to address
the incarcerated individual's underlying mental abnormality or disorder.
Such treatment services shall be provided using professionally accepted
treatment protocols.