Gov. Eliot Spitzer signed a bill today that will limit the use of solitary confinement for prisoners with serious mental illness. Under the legislation, the state Department of Correctional Services has to set up special units for inmates with severe psychiatric disabilities, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, where they will receive at least four hours a day or out-of-cell treatment or therapeutic programming. Those who are not removed from solitary confinement will receive a heightened level of care.

“This groundbreaking legislation demonstrates New York’s leadership in ensuring the mental-health needs of prisoners are addressed. It will ensure that all inmates, including those with serious mental illness,  receive appropriate treatment while in prison—enhancing their ability to make a successful transition into communities once they’re released,” Lt. Gov. David Paterson said in a statement.

Advocates who pushed for this legislation said people with mental illness are more likely to be in solitary confinement than inmates who are not mentally ill because of problems and behaviors associated with their ailments. An estimated12 percent of the state’s prison population, about 8,000 people, have serious mental illnesses. Being confined to a small cell and having limited interaction or treatment worsens their conditions, they said.

The original legislation to ban solitary confinement would have done so in all cases. The governor’s administration, however, wanted exceptions when the public health and safety of the inmate, general population or staff was at stake. The law includes that component, and it calls for training correction officers on how to work with the mentally ill.

The legislation, for the most part, won’t take effect until two years after the first mental-health unit is constructed, or July 2011 at the latest.

Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Corrections Committee Chairman Michael Nozzolio, R-Fayette, Seneca County, said the legislation is the result of years of hard work and will make prisons more humane and safer for inmates and staff.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and the leaders of the Assembly and Senate are advancing legislation to protect people, particularly children, from predators on the Internet. In particular, they are trying to improve safety on social networking sites. The Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act, e-STOP, would limit sexual predators’ use of the Internet and require convicted sex offenders to register their e-mail addresses, screen names and other online identifiers, and provide the information to social networking companies like MySpace and Facebook. Conditions of parole and probation would restrict access to the sites.

“The Internet and popular social networking sites are the playground of choice for many young people, and for sexual predators,” Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, Rensselaer County, said in a statement. “This measure will ensure greater protections for kids, more control for parents and more tools for law enforcement to better police the Internet and better protect people from being victimized.”

Recent investigations have found that tens of thousands of sex offenders have signed onto one of the most popular social networking sites, officials said. There are nearly 25,000 sex offenders registered in New York.

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign has put out a list of its “Rapid Responders” who will respond to what her campaign calls “inaccurate or misleading attacks directed at senator and President Clinton” in advance of the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday primaries.

Assemblyman Joseph Morelle, D-Irondequoit, and former state Democratic chairwoman Judith Hope will be her “Rapid Responders” in New York, the campaign said. Morelle is also the Monroe County Democratic chairman.

“The Rapid Responders are made up of elected officials and community leaders who will track distortions of Hillary’s record and answer quickly,” her campaign said.

  Making developers of projects helped by local economic-development agencies pay union-scale wages would increase costs by 52 percent upstate and 147 percent downstate, according to a study released today.

  The study, by Rochester’s Center for Governmental Research, was commissioned by the state Economic Development Council, which opposes the changes.

  “This would be one more dagger to the heart of the upstate economy,’’ said the council’s Brian McMahon.

    Developers that get help from the agencies would be required to pay prevailing wages, (usually union scale) under a bill that passed the Assembly this week.

  Its proponents say the measure would guarantee that taxpayer-backed projects paid decent wages.

  The Senate hasn’t acted on the measure. A deadlock past the expiration of the current law on Thursday would mean the agencies couldn’t participate in not-for-profit projects any more.

  Someone close to the negotiations said Monday there’s little chance for a last-minute deal. 

After just about every other politician has come out against toll increases on the state Thruway, Gov. Spitzer is voicing his opposition today after the state comptroller’s office yesterday called for no new toll increases.
“From the time the Thruway Authority put forward this latest round of proposed toll, increases we have refused to endorse them because of outstanding questions about their necessity,” Spitzer said in a statement.
“Based on the findings of an audit issued by the comptroller’s office, we reject any proposed toll increases. We support the Comptroller’s recommendations that the Authority undertake an in-depth review of spending, prioritize its capital budget, and review and justify its borrowing practices.”
Still, Spitzer didn’t say he would take the $80 million a year cost of running the state’s canal system off the Thruway Authority’s back, which the Thruway says is a main reason for proposed toll increases later this year and in 2009. Tolls already went up 10 percent for cash customers this month.
The state Assembly is holding a hearing tomorrow at 10 a.m. in Albany on the toll hikes.

We’re buried in budget books this week.

Download:

Former Democratic state Sen. Richard Dollinger is expected to run against Republican Sen. Joseph Robach this year, a source said.

Dollinger, a Brighton town judge, has refused to discuss his plans because he currently serves on the bench. However, Dollinger has apparently been talking up his candidacy privately in recent weeks and an announcement could come within a month, according to a source.

Democrats view Dollinger, who served in the state Senate from 1993 to 2002, as one of their best hopes in trying to win control of the Senate from Republicans. Republicans hold a two-seat majority.

Even though party enrollment heavily favors Democrats in the 56th District, Robach has been easily elected to the seat since 2002—when Robach switched parties as an assemblyman and sought to challenge Dollinger. Dollinger decided not to run.

Assemblyman David Koon, D-Perinton, meanwhile, says he’s still contemplating whether he’ll challenge Sen. James Alesi, R-Perinton. Koon said he wants to wait until after the presidential primaries and a special Senate election in the Watertown area to decide whether he will run.

Gov. Spitzer just annouced the date of the special election. It will be Feb. 26.

That’s what Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, is urging supporters to do by contributing to her election campaign.
In an email from her campaign committee, Slaughter notes a Washington Post article that she says is about the “ultra Right-Wing political attack group called Freedom’s Watch that is a serious threat to our Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.”
Slaughter calls on supporters to contribute to her campaign to combat the group.
“Why is Freedom’s Watch such a threat? Because they have around $250 million to spend on radical Right-Wing Republican Congressional candidates across the country in the 2008 election,” she says.
“That’s a quarter of a billion dollars to spend on TV ads, under-the-radar mailers, and the dirty tricks we all know they are capable of.
In the 2006 election, Democrats fought back and we were able to beat them.
But I haven’t seen Right-Wing groups this organized or well financed since their coordinated assault on President Bill Clinton during the 1990s. ”

State GOP Chairman Joseph Mondello (left) needed to invoke Yogi Berra in hopes of keeping his candidate, Rudy Giuliani, as a frontrunner for the Republican nomination in New York.

A Siena College poll today showed Giuliani down by a remarkable 12 points to Arizona Sen. John McCain.

Also, a Marist College poll today had similar results, with McCain up 11 points on Giuliani.

Anyway, Mondello is keeping the faith.

“In the words of New York Yankee legend, Yogi Berra, ‘It ain’t over ‘til it’s over,’” he said.
“The 2008 Republican presidential primary process has already taken more twists and turns than an Agatha Christie novel with different candidates vaulting to a lead in the polls after a strong primary showing one week only to see their support evaporate as they move on down the primary trail ..

“With its strong mix of transplanted New Yorkers, economic conservatives impressed by Rudy Giuliani’s bona fide tax cutting credentials, and national security conscious Republicans who were inspired by the Mayor’s heroic leadership in the wake of the World Trade Center attacks, Florida, when all the votes are counted, is going to prove it is Rudy Giuliani country.”

As for New York, “Fueled by the momentum of a victory in Florida, I am confident that Mayor Giuliani will be firmly atop the only New York primary poll that really counts, the one that tens of thousands of New York Republicans will participate in with their votes on Primary Day, Feb. 5th.”