1 1 BEFORE THE NEW YORK STATE SENATE FINANCE AND ASSEMBLY WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEES 2 ----------------------------------------------------- 3 JOINT LEGISLATIVE HEARING 4 In the Matter of the 2019-2020 EXECUTIVE BUDGET ON 5 PUBLIC PROTECTION 6 ----------------------------------------------------- 7 Hearing Room B Legislative Office Building 8 Albany, New York 9 January 29, 2019 9:40 a.m. 10 11 PRESIDING: 12 Senator Liz Krueger Chair, Senate Finance Committee 13 Assemblywoman Helene E. Weinstein 14 Chair, Assembly Ways & Means Committee 15 PRESENT: 16 Senator James L. Seward Senate Finance Committee (RM) 17 Assemblyman William A. Barclay 18 Assembly Ways & Means Committee (RM) 19 Senator Brad Hoylman Chair, Senate Committee on Judiciary 20 Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz 21 Chair, Assembly Committee on Judiciary 22 Senator Jamaal T. Bailey Chair, Senate Committee on Codes 23 Assemblyman Joseph Lentol 24 Chair, Assembly Committee on Codes 2 1 2019-2020 Executive Budget Public Protection 2 1-29-19 3 PRESENT: (Continued) 4 Senator Luis R. Sepúlveda Chair, Senate Committee on Crime Victims, 5 Crime and Correction 6 Assemblyman David I. Weprin Chair, Assembly Committee on Correction 7 Senator John E. Brooks 8 Chair, Senate Committee on Veterans, Homeland Security and Military Affairs 9 Assemblywoman Michele R. Titus 10 Chair, Assembly Committee on Governmental Operations 11 Senator Kevin Thomas 12 Chair, Senate Committee on Consumer Protection 13 Senator Diane J. Savino Chair, Senate Committee on Internet and 14 Technology 15 Assemblyman Michael Montesano 16 Assemblyman Joseph M. Giglio 17 Senator Gustavo Rivera 18 Assemblyman Philip A. Palmesano 19 Senator Todd Kaminsky 20 Assemblyman Kenneth P. Zebrowski 21 Senator Elizabeth O'C. Little 22 Senator Brian Benjamin 23 Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy 24 Senator Zellnor Myrie 3 1 2019-2020 Executive Budget Public Protection 2 1-29-19 3 PRESENT: (Continued) 4 Assemblyman Harvey Epstein 5 Senator John C. Liu 6 Assemblyman William Colton 7 Assemblywoman Marianne Buttenschon 8 Senator Robert E. Antonacci 9 Assemblywoman Nily Rozic 10 Assemblyman Thomas J. Abinanti 11 Senator Patrick Gallivan 12 Assemblywoman Diana C. Richardson 13 Assemblyman Edward P. Ra 14 15 16 17 LIST OF SPEAKERS 18 STATEMENT QUESTIONS 19 Honorable Lawrence K. Marks Chief Administrative Judge 20 NYS Office of Court Administration 10 21 21 Robert H. Tembeckjian 22 Administrator and Counsel New York State Commission on 23 Judicial Conduct 118 123 24 4 1 2019-2020 Executive Budget Public Protection 2 1-29-19 3 LIST OF SPEAKERS, Continued 4 STATEMENT QUESTIONS 5 Terence O'Leary Executive Deputy Commissioner 6 NYS Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services 162 168 7 Michael C. Green 8 Executive Deputy Commissioner NYS Division of Criminal 9 Justice Services 206 212 10 Anthony J. Annucci Acting Commissioner 11 NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision 270 277 12 Chris Fiore 13 Deputy Superintendent NYS Division of State Police 382 388 14 William J. Leahy 15 Director New York State Office of 16 Indigent Legal Services 421 431 17 Robert H. Samson Chief Information Officer 18 NYS Office of Information Technology Services 437 446 19 Jennifer Wilson 20 Legislative Director League of Women Voters 21 of New York State 487 490 22 Blair Horner Executive Director 23 New York Public Interest Research Group 491 491 24 5 1 2019-2020 Executive Budget Public Protection 2 1-29-19 3 LIST OF SPEAKERS, Continued 4 STATEMENT QUESTIONS 5 Karen L. Murtagh Executive Director 6 Thomas Curran, Esq. Board Member 7 Prisoners' Legal Services of New York 505 512 8 Michelle Esquenazi 9 President Steve Zalewski 10 Vice Chair NYS Bail Bondsman Association 11 -and- Jeffrey Clayton, Esq. 12 Executive Director American Bail Coalition 13 -and- Ed Forchion 14 Cannabis Rights and Free Speech Activist 522 534 15 Thomas H. Mungeer 16 President New York State Troopers PBA 17 -and- Christopher M. Quick 18 President NYS Police Investigators Assn. 19 -and- Scott Marciszewski 20 President Manuel M. Vilar 21 Vice President Police Benevolent Assn. of NYS 552 562 22 Louis Viscusi 23 President Suffolk County Correction 24 Officers Association 584 591 6 1 2019-2020 Executive Budget Public Protection 2 1-29-19 3 LIST OF SPEAKERS, Continued 4 STATEMENT QUESTIONS 5 Steven Drake Statewide Labor Management 6 Chair for DOCCS Greg Amorosi 7 Director of Legislation Public Employees Federation 595 599 8 Anne Erickson 9 President & CEO Empire Justice Center 10 -on behalf of- NY Legal Services Coalition 604 608 11 Susan Bryant 12 Deputy Director NYS Defenders Association 621 625 13 Dave George 14 Associate Director Release Aging People in 15 Prison Campaign -and- 16 Doug Van Zandt North Country Organizer 17 Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement 627 638 18 Dipal Shah 19 Director of Strategic Partnerships 20 Center for Court Innovation 642 645 21 Nicole Porter Director of Advocacy 22 The Sentencing Project 645 23 24 7 1 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Good morning, 2 everyone. Thank you for being in attendance. 3 Those of you who are in this room know 4 that you got here before the snow hit Albany, 5 and some of us will be here 13 hours or so. 6 But just -- if you know that because of the 7 weather it's not realistic for you to be 8 staying, you should make that call for 9 yourself. Your testimony will always be part 10 of the record, and you've already submitted 11 it. 12 But if you do decide you're going to 13 attempt to escape our beautiful winter 14 wonderland, just let someone know at the 15 front so that we mark you off that you won't 16 be testifying. That will be helpful for us 17 in planning. But some of us are absolutely 18 planning to be here until every one of you 19 has an opportunity to testify. 20 This is the hearing on Public 21 Protection. I am Liz Krueger, Senator chair 22 of Finance, joined by Helene Weinstein, chair 23 of Ways and Means in the Assembly. 24 I'm going to start out by introducing 8 1 the Senators who are here, and then Helene 2 will introduce the Assemblymembers. 3 Starting in the front circle, we have 4 Senator Luis Sepúlveda, we have Senator Diane 5 Savino. We have Senator Gustavo Rivera at 6 the end, Senator Zellnor Myrie to his left, 7 Senator Kevin Thomas. To his left, Senator 8 John Brooks. To his left, Senator Brad 9 Hoylman. To his left -- it depends on 10 whether you're looking at me or facing out, 11 in fairness. Or maybe just the politics of 12 the -- 13 (Laughter.) 14 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: And I'm also 15 joined by Senator Seward, the ranker on 16 Finance. 17 SENATOR HOYLMAN: He's definitely not 18 on my left. 19 (Laughter.) 20 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: You might need to 21 move. 22 (Laughter.) 23 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: I don't know, 24 it's a new day in Albany. Who knows what 9 1 Senator Seward identifies as. 2 Helene? 3 CHAIRWOMAN WEINSTEIN: Thank you. 4 So we're joined here by Assemblyman 5 Lentol, Codes chair; Assemblyman Dinowitz, 6 chair of Judiciary; Assemblyman Weprin, chair 7 of Corrections; Assemblyman Epstein; and, on 8 the lower dais, Assemblyman Zebrowski. 9 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you. 10 CHAIRWOMAN WEINSTEIN: Oh, I'm sorry. 11 And our ranker, Will Barclay, will introduce 12 the Republican member. 13 ASSEMBLYMAN BARCLAY: Thank you. Good 14 morning. We have Joe Giglio, the ranker on 15 Corrections. 16 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you. 17 And just before we start, we also have 18 a new clock timer system this year. So each 19 of the government representatives, the first 20 six testifiers, will have 10 minutes to 21 testify. We're urging people not to read 22 their testimony but, rather, highlight what 23 they think are the crucial points. We all 24 have full copies of the testimony in front of 10 1 us, and the full testimony will be available 2 online to the public. 3 The lights, you'll notice, will start 4 off green when your 10 minutes starts, then 5 go to yellow when you have one minute left, 6 and then go to red and beep at you to let you 7 know your time is up. And we're actually 8 finding this quite effective to try to keep 9 ourselves on schedule. 10 In questioning, we also get a set 11 amount of time. Chairs for the relevant 12 government people get 10 minutes to go back 13 and forth, the questions and the answers. 14 And then we move to 5 minutes for -- if 15 you're not a chair of that relevant 16 committee. I think it will become a little 17 more obvious as we go along. 18 So our first testifier is the 19 Honorable Lawrence K. Marks, who's the chief 20 administrative judge of the New York State 21 court system. 22 Welcome to you, Judge. 23 CHIEF ADMIN. JUDGE MARKS: Thank you. 24 And good morning, Chairpersons Krueger and 11 1 Weinstein, Hoylman and Dinowitz, and good 2 morning to the other committee members here 3 today. 4 I'm Lawrence Marks. I'm chief 5 administrative judge of the Unified Court 6 System. And I'm very pleased to be here this 7 morning to discuss the Judiciary's budget 8 request for the 2019-2020 state fiscal year. 9 Our request this year is modest and 10 straightforward. It calls for an increase in 11 judiciary funding of just under $45 million, 12 or 2 percent over the spending level in our 13 current operating budget.