2014-2015 JOINT LEGISLATIVE BUDGET HEARING Public Protection

Wednesday, February 5 - 10 A.M. HEARING ROOM B, LEGISLATIVE OFFICE BUILDING, ALBANY

Senate Finance Committee Chair John A. DeFrancisco and Assembly Ways and Means Committee Chair Herman D. Farrell, Jr. today announced that the eighth Joint Legislative Hearing in a series of 13 hearings will be held on Wednesday, February 5. During the Public Protection Hearing, which is part of the legislative process to review the 2014-2015 Executive Budget, officials of the criminal justice system and law enforcment as well as representatives of prisoner advocacy organizations will have an opportunity to address the Senate and Assembly fiscal committees. These joint legislative hearings will continue through Tuesday, February 11 and are available for live viewing on the Senate and Assembly websites and the Legislative Channel (available on cable systems throughout the state), but will be preempted when the houses are in session. At the conclusion of the legislative deliberations, live televised coverage of the hearings will resume. Among those scheduled to testify are the Honorable A. Gail Prudenti, chief administrative judge, NYS Office of Court Administration; Jerome M. Hauer, commissioner, NYS Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services; Michael C. Green, executive deputy commissioner, NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services; Anthony J. Annucci, acting commissioner, NYS Department of Correction and Community Supervision; Joseph DAmico, superintendent, NYS Division of State Police; and Robert Tembeckjian, administrator and counsel, NYS Commission on Judicial Conduct. Testimony also will be provided by NYS Police Investigators President Jeffrey Kayser; Thomas Mungeer, president, NYS Troopers PBA; Manuel Vilar, president, Police Benevolent Association of NYS; Don Rowe, president, NYS Correctional Officers PBA; Jack Beck, director, Prison Visiting Project and Gabrielle Horowitz-Prisco, director, Juvenile Justice Program, Correctional Association of NY. In addition, testimony is expected from Patrick Cullen, president, NYS Supreme Court Officers Association; Jonathan Gradess, executive director, NYS Defenders Association; and William Leahy, director, NYS Office of Indigent Legal Services.