ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 4570
(By Delegates Stemple, Mahan, Browning, Proudfoot,
Long, Perry, Hrutkay, Varner and Webster)
[Passed March 6, 2008; in effect from passage.]
AN ACT to amend and reenact §31-20-27a of the Code of West
Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to authorizing regional
jail employees to carry a firearm after receiving appropriate
certification; and expanding their arrest authority.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §31-20-27a 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.
§31-20-27a. Regional jail employees right to carry firearm;
arrest authority of correctional officers.
(a) The executive director may issue a certificate authorizing
any regional jail employee who has successfully completed the
authority's training program for firearms certification, which shall be the equivalent of that required of deputy sheriffs, to
carry firearms and concealed weapons while on duty. Any regional
jail employee authorized by the executive director has the right,
without a state license, to carry firearms and concealed weapons
while on duty, pursuant to the provisions and limitations of this
section. Each employee authorized by the executive director shall
carry with him or her a certificate, authorizing him or her to
carry a firearm or concealed weapon when performing his or her
official duties as a regional jail employee, bearing the official
signature of the executive director and administrator. The right
is extended to a regional jail employee during the time the
employee travels from place to place within the state for the
purpose of transporting inmates, and during the time the employee
is pursuing and apprehending escaped inmates, and during any other
time the employee is performing official duties as a regional jail
employee. The regional jail employee's carrying of a firearm or
concealed weapon while on regional jail property must also comply
with rules and procedures established by the Regional Jail
Authority. No regional jail employee has the right to carry a
firearm or concealed weapon for any other purpose or during any
other time, including when traveling to and from the employee's
residence and a regional jail, unless the employee has obtained a
state license in the manner prescribed in article seven, chapter
sixty-one of this code.
(b) Persons employed by the Regional Jail Authority as
correctional officers are hereby authorized and empowered to make
arrests of persons already charged with a violation of law who
surrender themselves to such correctional officer, to arrest
persons already in the custody of the Regional Jail Authority for
violations of law occurring in the officer's presence, to detain
persons for violations of state law committed on the property of
any regional jail, and to conduct investigations, pursue and
apprehend escapees from the custody of regional jail.
(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed as to make a
correctional officer employed by the Regional Jail Authority a
law-enforcement officer as defined in section one, article
twenty-nine, chapter thirty of this code.