• Permit the governor to close two under-used state prisons, Bayview, a women's facility in Manhattan, and Beacon, a women's minimum security prison in Dutchess County.
• Restrict plea bargaining of traffic tickets when the driver was speeding at more than 20 mph above the limit. In those cases, motorists would have to plead guilty to at least a point-bearing violation.
• Allow the Office of Children and Family Services to close all of its non-secure juvenile facilities. This year, as part of the "close to home initiative," the state barred the placement of juvenile offenders from New York City in facilities outside the city. Legislation proposed for the fiscal year beginning April 1 would extend "close to home" upstate and, effective May 1, Family Courts would no longer be permitted to place youth from counties outside of New York City with the Office of Children and Family Services. Instead, juvenile delinquents would be placed with a local social services district.
@|John Caher and Joel Stashenko can be contacted at jcaher@alm.com and jstashenko@alm.com.
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