(a) Except as provided in paragraphs (b) and (c) of this subdivision, every institution operated by the department for the confinement of persons under sentence of imprisonment, or for the confinement of persons committed for failure to pay a fine, shall be a correctional facility.

(b) An institution operated by the department for the care and confinement of persons who have been found to be mentally defective or mentally ill by a court and who are confined in such place pursuant to an order of a court based upon such finding shall not be deemed to be a correctional facility.

(c) An institution operated by the department as a drug treatment campus, as defined in subdivision twenty of section two of this chapter and used to provide intensive drug treatment services for parolees and certain parole violators, shall not be deemed to be a correctional facility. 2. Correctional facilities shall be used for the purpose of providing places of confinement and programs of treatment for persons in the custody of the department. Such use shall be suited, to the greatest extent practicable, to the objective of assisting sentenced persons to live as law abiding citizens. In furtherance of this objective the department may establish and maintain any type of institution or program of treatment, not inconsistent with other provisions of law, but with due regard to:

(a) The safety and security of the community;

(b) The right of every person in the custody of the department to receive humane treatment; and

(c) The health and safety of every person in the custody of the department. 3. (a) The commissioner may continue to maintain, as a correctional facility, any institution operated by the department prior to May eighth, nineteen hundred seventy, and may add to or close any such place, and may establish and maintain new correctional facilities, in accordance with the needs of the department and provided expenditures for such purposes are within amounts made available therefor by appropriation; provided, however, that before the closure of any correctional facility, for reasons other than those set forth in paragraph (a) of subdivision eight of section forty-five of this chapter, the provisions of section seventy-nine-a of this article shall be adhered to.

(b) A correctional camp or a shock incarceration correctional facility may be established by the department (i) upon land controlled and designated by the commissioner, or (ii) on land controlled and designated by the commissioner of parks, recreation and historic preservation or, in the sixth park region, by the commissioner of environmental conservation. 4. Two or more correctional facilities may be maintained or established in the same building or on the same premises so long as the inmates of each are at all times kept separate and apart from each other except that the inmates of one may be permitted to have contact with inmates of the other in order to perform duties, receive therapeutic treatment, attend religious services and engage in like activities as specifically provided in the rules and regulations of the department. 5. Each correctional facility must be designated in the rules and regulations of the department and no correctional facility can be used by the department for confinement of persons unless the rules and regulations of the department specify at least the following:

(a) The name and location of the facility;

(b) Whether the facility is to be used for the confinement of males or for the confinement of females;

(c) The age range of the persons who may be confined in the facility; and

(d) The classification of the facility. 6. Correctional facilities shall be classified by the commissioner in accordance with the following types of classifications:

(a) Each facility shall be classified with respect to the type of security maintained as either a maximum, medium or minimum security facility.

(b) Each facility shall be classified with respect to the function served in accordance with one or more of the following categories: (i) reception center; (ii) residential treatment facility; (iii) detention center; (iv) correctional camp; (v) diagnostic and treatment center; (vi) general confinement facility; (vii) work release facility; (viii) shock incarceration correctional facility; (ix) alcohol and substance abuse treatment facility; (x) alcohol and substance abuse treatment correctional annex. 7. The commissioner shall have the authority to enter into leases within the amount appropriated therefor, for the purpose of maintaining or establishing any correctional facility or any adjunct thereto. 8. The commissioner is authorized to enter into contracts, within the amount appropriated therefor, with any university, social agency or qualified person to render professional services to any correctional facility.