§ 201. Authority and responsibility for community supervision. 1. The department shall have responsibility for the preparation of reports and other data required by the state board of parole in the exercise of its independent decision making functions.

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2. In accordance with the provisions of this chapter, the department shall supervise incarcerated individuals released to community supervision, except that the department may consent to the supervision of a released incarcerated individual by the United States parole commission pursuant to the witness security act of nineteen hundred eighty-four.

3. To facilitate the supervision of all incarcerated individuals released to community supervision, the commissioner shall consider the implementation of a program of graduated sanctions, including but not limited to the utilization of a risk and needs assessment instrument that would be administered to all incarcerated individuals eligible for community supervision. Such a program would include various components including approaches that concentrate supervision on new releases, alternatives to incarceration for technical parole violators and the use of enhanced technologies.

4. The department shall conduct such investigations as may be necessary in connection with alleged violations of community supervision.

5. The department shall assist incarcerated individuals eligible for community supervision and individuals who are on community supervision to secure employment, educational or vocational training, and housing. Any program the department requires a person on community supervision to take as a condition of such supervision shall not unreasonably interfere with such person's employment, educational or vocational training schedule unless such program is a residential treatment program.

6. The department shall have the duty to provide written notice to incarcerated individuals prior to release to community supervision or pursuant to subdivision six of § 410.91 of the criminal procedure law of any requirement to report to the office of victim services any funds of a convicted person as defined in § 632-a of the executive law, the procedure for such reporting and any potential penalty for a failure to comply.

7. The department shall encourage apprenticeship training of such persons through the assistance and cooperation of industrial, commercial and labor organizations.

8. The department may establish a community supervision transition program, which is hereby defined as community-based residential facilities designed to aid community supervision violators to develop an increased capacity for adjustment to community living. Presumptive releasees, parolees, conditional releasees and those under post-release supervision who have either (a) been found pursuant to Article 12-B of the executive law to have violated one or more conditions of release in an important respect, or (b) allegedly violated one or more of such conditions upon a finding of probable cause at a preliminary hearing or upon the waiver thereof may be placed in a community supervision transition facility. Placement in such a facility upon a finding of probable cause or the waiver thereof shall not preclude the conduct of a revocation hearing, nor, absent a waiver, operate to deny the releasee's right to such revocation hearing.

10. The department shall have the power to grant and revoke certificates of relief from disabilities and certificates of good conduct as provided for by law.

11. In any case where a person is entitled to jail time credit under the provisions of paragraph (c) of subdivision three of § 70.40 of the penal law, to certify to the person in charge of the institution in which such person's sentence is being served the amount of such credit.

12. The department shall supervise all persons who are released and subject to a regimen of strict and intensive supervision and treatment pursuant to Article ten of the mental hygiene law. The department shall issue and periodically update rules and regulations concerning the supervision of such persons in consultation with the office of sex offender management in the division of criminal justice services and the office of mental health.

13. The department shall perform such other functions as are necessary and proper in furtherance of the objective of maintaining an effective, efficient and fair system of community supervision.

14. The commissioner shall promulgate such regulations as are necessary and proper for the efficient performance of the functions set forth in this article. He or she shall have the authority to contract with public or private agencies for the performance of the functions set forth in this section as are necessary or appropriate to promote the efficient performance of such responsibilities, except the functions defined in subdivisions one, two, four, ten and twelve of this section.

15. The commissioner shall provide an annual report to the temporary president of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, the minority leader of the senate and minority leader of the assembly, commencing January first, two thousand twelve. Such report shall include but not be limited to the number of persons: released to community supervision and the release type; supervised on community supervision during the preceding year; whose community supervision was revoked; returned to incarceration for conviction of a new felony committed while on community supervision; transferred out of state pursuant to the Interstate Compact for Adult Supervision. In addition, the commissioner shall provide other available information regarding community supervision to the temporary president of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, the minority leader of the senate and minority leader of the assembly upon request.