146. Persons authorized to visit correctional facilities. 1. The following persons shall be authorized to visit at pleasure all correctional facilities: The governor and lieutenant-governor, commissioner of general services, secretary of state, comptroller and attorney-general, members of the commission of correction, members of the legislature and any employee of the department as requested by the member of the legislature if the member requests to be so accompanied, provided that such request does not impact upon the department's ability to supervise, manage and control its facilities as determined by the commissioner, judges of the court of appeals, supreme court and county judges, district attorneys and every clergyman or minister, as such terms are defined in section two of the religious corporations law, having charge of a congregation in the county wherein any such facility is situated. No other person not otherwise authorized by law shall be permitted to enter a correctional facility except by authority of the commissioner of correction under such regulations as the commissioner shall prescribe. The provisions of this section shall not apply to such portion of a correctional facility in which inmates under sentence of death are confined.
2. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, on each September thirteenth anniversary date of the nineteen hundred seventy-one retaking of Attica correctional facility, in the absence of an emergency situation or other exigent circumstance, the commissioner shall ensure that any surviving state employees who were held as hostages and any immediate family members, as that term is defined in subdivision four of section 120.40 of the penal law, of any of the state employees who were held hostage for any period by rioting inmates during the period from September ninth through September thirteenth, nineteen hundred seventy-one, shall be afforded access to the outside grounds of Attica correctional facility to conduct a private commemorative ceremony in front of the Attica monument upon which are inscribed the names of employees who died as a result of the uprising and subsequent retaking.
Last modified: February 3, 2019