The DOCS keeps people in line. It oversees inmates. DOCS runs a work program that employs about 2,500 inmates making office furniture and performing services like printing and engraving that are sold to other state agencies. It also runs a website where friends and family can look up inmates and learn what is and is not allowed inside.
People who we put in prison come out, and therefore we need to think about what condition they're going to be in when they're released from prison. There's been a decline in participation, in education programs in prison, in vocational programs in prison, in drug treatment programs in prison. He or she has to take some responsibility for their life, their actions, and be accountable, in that sense. We hear stories from jurisdictions around the country of people being released in the middle of the night at a bus station with $20 in their pocket, and told basically that they're on their own to go home, some people being released from prison this year have no form of legal supervision when they get out, so they're basically turned out of the prison's door. Other states try to manage the process much more effectively and efficiently on both sides of the prison wall to make sure that people who are leaving prison are prepared, that their families are prepared, that the communities are prepared. Something as simple as making sure that somebody has medication, or that they have identification papers so that they can apply for benefits, so that somebody knows where they're going to be and they have a roof over their head. There's a lot that can be done that's fairly simple and straight forward to make the process work much more better. Oftentimes persons released from prison don't have places to go, so we depend on halfway houses and other community based options for those offenders, so that we can ensure public safety as well as the offender being released from prison.
The NYSDOCS also wants to improve different states...