§ 401-a. Oversight responsibilities of the justice center for the protection of people with special needs. 1. The justice center for the protection of people with special needs shall be responsible for monitoring the quality of mental health care provided to inmates pursuant to article twenty of the executive law. The justice center shall have direct and immediate access to all areas where state prisoners are housed, and to clinical and department records relating to inmates' clinical conditions. The justice center shall maintain the confidentiality of all patient-specific information.

2. The justice center shall monitor the quality of care in residential mental health treatment programs and shall ensure compliance with paragraphs (d) and (e) of subdivision six of section one hundred thirty-seven of this chapter and section four hundred one of this article. The justice center may recommend to the department and the office of mental health that inmates in segregated confinement pursuant to subdivision six of section one hundred thirty-seven of this chapter be evaluated for placement in a residential mental health treatment unit. It may also recommend ways to further the goal of diverting and removing inmates with serious mental illness from segregated confinement to residential mental health treatment units. The justice center shall include in its annual report to the governor and the legislature pursuant to section five hundred sixty of the executive law, a description of the state's progress in complying with this article, which shall be publicly available.

3. The justice center shall appoint an advisory committee on psychiatric correctional care ("committee"), which shall be composed of independent mental health experts and mental health advocates, and may include family members of former inmates with serious mental illness. Such committee shall advise the justice center on its oversight responsibilities pursuant to this section. The committee may also make recommendations to the justice center regarding improvements to prison-based mental health care. Nothing in this subdivision shall be deemed to authorize members of the committee to have access to a correctional or mental hygiene facility or any part of such a facility. Provided, however, newly appointed members of the advisory committee shall be provided with a tour of a segregated confinement unit and a residential mental health treatment unit, as selected by the commissioner. Any such tour shall be arranged on a date and at a time selected by the commissioner and upon such terms and conditions as are within the sole discretion of the commissioner.