Bill Text: WV HB2480 | 2018 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Changing the way counties pay for regional jail inmates
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-01-10 - To House Judiciary [HB2480 Detail]
Download: West_Virginia-2018-HB2480-Introduced.html
FISCAL
NOTE
WEST virginia Legislature
2017 regular session
By
[
to the Committee on the Judiciary then Finance.
A BILL to amend and
reenact §31-20-10 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to
changing the way counties pay for regional jail inmates from a per diem rate to
an hourly rate.
Be it enacted by the
Legislature of West Virginia:
That §31-20-10 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 20. WEST VIRGINIA REGIONAL JAIL AND CORRECTIONAL
FACILITY AUTHORITY.
§31-20-10. Regional jail and correctional facility
authority funds.
(a) The Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority may
create special funds in the State Treasury to identify various revenue sources
and payment of specific obligations. These funds may be used for purposes that
include, but are not limited to, the construction, renovation or repair of
specific facilities, cash control, facility maintenance and the individual
operations accounts of facilities operated by the authority. The authority may
create other separate accounts within these funds that it determines are
necessary for the efficient operation of the authority.
(b) Revenues deposited into these funds shall be used to make
payments of interest and shall be pledged as security for bonds, security
interests or notes issued or lease-purchase obligations entered into with
another state entity by the authority pursuant to this article.
(c) Whenever the authority determines that the balance in
these funds is in excess of the immediate requirements of this article, it may
request that the excess be invested until needed. In this case, the excess
shall be invested in a manner consistent with the investment of temporary state
funds. Interest earned on any money invested pursuant to this section shall be
credited to these funds.
(d) If the authority determines that moneys held in these
funds are in excess of the amount needed to carry out the purposes of this
article, it shall take any action that is necessary to release
the excess and transfer it to the General Revenue Fund of the
State Treasury.
(e) These funds consist of the following:
(1) Amounts raised by the authority by the sale of bonds or
other borrowing authorized by this article;
(2) Moneys collected and deposited in the State Treasury
which are specifically designated by Acts of the Legislature for inclusion in
these funds;
(3) Contributions, grants and gifts from any source, both
public and private, which may be used by the authority for any project or
projects;
(4) All sums paid by the counties pursuant to subsection (h)
of this section; and
(5) All interest earned on investments made by the state from
moneys deposited in these funds.
(f) The amounts deposited in these funds shall be accounted
for and expended in the following manner:
(1) Amounts raised by the sale of bonds or other borrowing
authorized by this article shall be deposited in a separate account within
these funds and expended for the purpose of construction, renovation and repair
of correctional facilities, regional jails and juvenile detention and
correctional facilities for which need has been determined by the authority;
(2) Amounts deposited from all other sources shall be pledged
first to the debt service on any bonded indebtedness, including lease-purchase
obligations entered into by the authority with another state entity or other
obligation incurred by borrowing of the authority;
(3) After any requirements of debt service have been
satisfied, the authority shall requisition from these funds the amounts that
are necessary to provide for payment of the administrative expenses of this
article;
(4) The authority shall requisition from these funds, after
any requirements of debt service have been satisfied, the amounts that are
necessary for the maintenance and operation of regional jails that are
constructed pursuant to the provisions of this article and shall expend those
amounts for that purpose. These funds shall make an accounting of all amounts
received from each county by virtue of any filing fees, court costs or fines
required by law to be deposited in these funds and amounts from the jail
improvement funds of the various counties. After the expenses of administration
have been deducted, the amounts expended in the respective regions from those
sources shall be in proportion to the percentage the amount contributed to
these funds by the counties in each region bears to the total amount received
by these funds from those sources;
(5) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this article,
sums paid into these funds by each county pursuant to subsection (h) of this
section for each inmate shall be placed in a separate account and shall be
requisitioned from these funds to pay for costs incurred at the regional jail
facility at which each inmate was incarcerated; and
(6) Any amounts deposited in these funds from other sources
permitted by this article shall be expended in the respective regions based on
particular needs to be determined by the authority.
(g) (1) After a regional jail facility becomes available
pursuant to this article for the incarceration of inmates, each county within
the region shall incarcerate all persons whom the county would have
incarcerated in any jail prior to the availability of the regional jail
facility in the regional jail facility except those whose incarceration in a
local jail facility used as a local holding facility is specified as
appropriate under the standards and procedures developed pursuant to section
nine of this article and who the sheriff or the circuit court elects to
incarcerate therein.
(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision (1) of this
subsection, circuit and magistrate courts are authorized to:
(A) Detain persons who have been arrested or charged with a
crime, in a county or municipal jail, specified as appropriate under the
standards and procedures developed pursuant to section nine of this article,
for a period not to exceed ninety-six hours; or
(B) Commit persons convicted of a crime in a county or
municipal jail, specified as appropriate under the standards and procedures
developed pursuant to section nine of this article, for a period not to exceed
fourteen days.
(h) When inmates are placed in a regional jail facility
pursuant to subsection (g) of this section, the county shall pay into the
Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority Fund a cost per day hour
for each incarcerated inmate to be determined by the Regional Jail and
Correctional Facility Authority according to criteria and by procedures
established by legislative rules proposed for promulgation pursuant to article
three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code and as established in section ten-a
of this article to cover the costs of operating the regional jail facilities of
this state to maintain each inmate. The per hour cost applies as soon as an
inmate is incarcerated until the time he or she is released from incarceration.
When an inmate's incarceration covers a fraction
of an hour, the county shall pay the full per hour rate for that time. The per diem hour costs for incarcerating
inmates may not include the cost of construction, acquisition or renovation of
the regional jail facilities: Provided, That each regional jail facility
operating in this state shall keep a record of the date and time that an inmate
is incarcerated. and a county may not be charged for a second day of
incarceration for an individual inmate until that inmate has remained
incarcerated for more than twenty-four hours. After that, in cases of
continuous incarceration, subsequent per diem charges shall be made upon a
county only as subsequent intervals of twenty-four hours pass from the original
time of incarceration
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is
to provide to counties an hourly cost when paying for the incarceration of
inmates in regional jails instead of a daily rate.
Strike-throughs indicate language
that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring
indicates new language that would be added.