New York State provides three dedicated channels of library support for incarcerated individuals. One is managed by the NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) and provides funding and staffing for law libraries and general libraries in state correctional facilities. The other two are managed by the New York State Library’s Division of Library Development, assisting public library systems in serving patrons in state correctional facilities and county jails.
New York State Education Law §285 (1) designates funds to make a public library system’s services available to the incarcerated individuals in that region’s state correctional facilities. This is done in direct coordination and formal annual agreement with the correctional facilities libraries, with each system with a state correctional facility (or facilities) in its service area receiving $9.25 per incarcerated individual based on the incarcerated population as of July 1 of the previous year. Commissioner's Regulation §90.14 requires systems to amend their plans of service to reflect this and submit fiscal and evaluation reports at the Commissioner’s request.
For full details of this program, please see the Guidelines for the New York State Public Library System Services to State Correctional Facility Libraries State Aid Program.
New York State Education Law §285 (2) designates funds to make a public library system’s services available to the incarcerated individuals in that region’s county jails. The total statewide aid is set at $175,000, which is divided among the 23 library systems according to the ratio of county jails in each region.