Senate Bill No. 411
(By Senators Kessler, Oliverio, Foster, Green, Minard, Stollings,
Wells, Barnes, Hall and Yoder)
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported January 31, 2007.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new article, designated §25-1B-1, §25-1B-2,
§25-1B-3, §25-1B-4, §25-1B-5, §25-1B-6 and §25-1B-7
, all
relating to creation of the West Virginia Correctional Center
Nursery Act; defining terms; establishing eligibility
requirements and terms of participation; providing for
termination from the program; authorizing rules; authorizing
collection of child support; requiring assignment of child
support to the Division of Corrections; requiring a portion of
child support and other moneys collected on behalf of a mother
or child to be saved and given to the mother upon her release;
creating the Correctional Center Nursery Fund; authorizing the
Division of Corrections to accept grants, gifts and other
moneys; authorizing expenditures from the fund; and allowing
voluntary regulation of the program.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new article, designated §25-1B-1, §25-1B-2,
§25-1B-3, §25-1B-4, §25-1B-5, §25-1B-6 and §25-1B-7, all to read as
follows:
CHAPTER 25. DIVISION OF CORRECTIONS.
ARTICLE 1B. WEST VIRGINIA CORRECTIONAL CENTER NURSERY ACT.
§25-1B-1. Authorization; definitions.
(a) The Division of Corrections is hereby authorized to
establish a correctional center nursery in one or more of the
correctional centers for women operated by the division. The
program would allow eligible inmates and children born to them
while in the custody of the division to reside together in the
institution. In establishing this program, neither the inmate's
participation in the program nor any provision of this article
shall affect, modify, or interfere with the inmate's custodial
rights to the child nor does it establish legal custody of the
child with the division.
(b) As used in this article:
(1) "Correctional center nursery program" means the program
authorized by this article.
(2) "Public assistance" means all forms of assistance,
including monetary assistance from any public source paid either to
the mother or child or any other person on behalf of the child.
(3)
"Support" means the payment of money, including interest:
(A) For a child or spouse, ordered by a court of competent
jurisdiction, whether the payment is ordered in an emergency,
temporary, permanent or modified order, the amount of unpaid
support shall bear simple interest from the date it accrued, at a
rate of ten dollars upon one hundred dollars per annum, and
proportionately for a greater or lesser sum, or for a longer or
shorter time;
(B) To third parties on behalf of a child or spouse,
including, but not limited to, payments to medical, dental or
educational providers, payments to insurers for health and
hospitalization insurance, payments of residential rent or mortgage
payments, payments on an automobile or payments for day care; or
(C) For a mother, ordered by a court of competent
jurisdiction, for the necessary expenses incurred by or for the
mother in connection with her confinement or of other expenses in
connection with the pregnancy of the mother.
(4) "Support order" means an award of support by order of a
court of competent jurisdiction.
§25-1B-2. Eligible inmates.
An inmate is eligible to participate in the correctional
center nursery program if she is pregnant at the time she is
delivered into the custody of the Division of Corrections; she
gives birth on or after the date the program is implemented; and she and the child meet any other criteria established by the
division. Placement into the nursery program shall be by internal
classification of the division. A sentencing court is without
jurisdiction to order a placement of an inmate into the nursery
program.
§25-1B-3. Terms of participation.
To participate in the correctional center nursery program,
each eligible inmate selected by the division shall agree in
writing to all the following:
(1) Comply with any educational, counseling, or other
requirements established for the program by the Division of
Corrections;
(2) If eligible, have the child participate in the Medicaid
program or a health insurance program;
(3) Accept the normal risks of child bearing;
(4) Abide by any court decisions regarding the allocation of
parental rights and responsibilities with respect to the child;
(5) Assign to the division any rights to support from any
other person;
(6) Specify with whom the child is to be placed in the event
the inmate's participation in the program is terminated for a
reason other than release from imprisonment.
§25-1B-4. Termination of inmate's participation in program.
An inmate's participation in the correctional center nursery program may be terminated by the Division of Corrections if one of
the following occurs:
(a) The inmate fails to comply with the agreement entered into
under section three of this article;
(b) The inmate's child becomes seriously ill, cannot meet
medical criteria established by the division for the program, or
otherwise cannot safely participate in the program;
(c) A court of competent jurisdiction issues an order that
designates a person other than the inmate as the child's custodial
parent and legal custodian;
(d) A court of competent jurisdiction grants custody of the
child to a person other than the inmate;
(e) An order is issued granting shared parenting of the child;
(f) An order regarding the child is issued granting temporary,
permanent, or legal custody of the child to a person other than the
inmate, or to a public children services agency or private child
placing agency; or
(g) The inmate is released from imprisonment.
§25-1B-5. Collection of child support.
(a) The rights to support assigned by any inmate shall
constitute an obligation of the person who is responsible for
providing the support to the Division of Corrections for the
support provided the inmate and child pursuant to the correctional
center nursery program. The Bureau of Child Support Enforcement shall collect support payments made pursuant to the assignment and
forward them to the Division of Corrections.
(b) The Division of Corrections may receive the following:
(1) Money that is assigned or donated on behalf of, and public
assistance provided to, a specific inmate or child participating in
the correctional center nursery program;
(2) Money or other property assigned or donated to establish
and maintain the correctional center nursery program.
(c) Ten percent of the moneys described in this section shall
be placed in the mandatory savings account of the mother for whom
the money was received. The remaining moneys shall be used for
items not covered by other program funds.
§25-1B-6. Program support; correctional center nursery fund.
The Division of Corrections shall obtain
sufficient resources
to initiate and maintain the correctional center nursery program if
the program is established. The division is authorized to accept
gifts, grants, property, funds, money, interest on investment of the
fund, materials, labor, supplies or services from the United States
of America or from any governmental unit or any person, foundation,
firm or corporation to support the program. All moneys collected
shall be deposited in a special revenue account, designated the
"Correctional Center Nursery Fund", which is hereby created.
Expenditures from the fund shall be for the purposes set forth in
this article and are not authorized from collections but are to be made only in accordance with appropriation by the Legislature and
in accordance with the provisions of article three, chapter eleven-b
of this code: Provided, That for the fiscal year ending the
thirtieth day of June, two thousand eight expenditures are
authorized from collections rather than pursuant to appropriation
by the Legislature. If there are sufficient moneys in the fund,
they shall be invested by the West Virginia Investment Management
Board in accordance with the provisions of article six, chapter
twelve of this code.
§25-1B-7. Voluntary regulation.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the
contrary, neither the correctional center nursery program nor the
Division of Corrections, with respect to the program, is subject to
any regulation, licensing, or oversight by the Department of Health
and Human Resources unless the Division of Corrections and the
Department of Health and Human Resources agree to voluntary
regulation, licensing, or oversight.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create a correctional
center nursery program which will allow incarcerated pregnant women
to keep their infants with them in a special housing unit.
This article is new; therefore, underscoring and strike-
throughs have been omitted.