Senate Bill No. 762
(By Senator Boley)
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[Introduced February 18, 2008; referred to the Committee on
Health and Human Resources; and then to the Committee on
Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §49-5B-4 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to creating a special revenue
account in the State Treasury known as the Juvenile Services
Status Offender Fund.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §49-5B-4 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5B. WEST VIRGINIA JUVENILE OFFENDER REHABILITATION ACT.
§49-5B-4. Responsibilities of the Department of Health and Human
Resources and Division of Juvenile Services of the
Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety.
(a) The Department of Health and Human Resources and the
Division of Juvenile Services of the Department of Military Affairs
and Public Safety are empowered to jointly establish, and shall
establish, subject to the limits of funds available or otherwise
appropriated therefor, programs and services designed to prevent juvenile delinquency, to divert juveniles from the juvenile justice
system, to provide community-based alternatives to juvenile
detention and correctional facilities and to encourage a diversity
of alternatives within the child welfare and juvenile justice
system. The development, maintenance and expansion of programs and
services may include, but not be limited to, the following:
(1) Community-based programs and services for the prevention
and treatment of juvenile delinquency through the development of
foster-care and shelter-care homes, group homes, halfway houses,
homemaker and home health services, twenty-four hour intake
screening, volunteer and crisis home programs, day treatment and
any other designated community-based diagnostic, treatment or
rehabilitative service;
(2) Community-based programs and services to work with parents
and other family members to maintain and strengthen the family unit
so that the juvenile may be retained in his or her home;
(3) Youth service bureaus and other community-based programs
to divert youth from the juvenile court or to support, counsel, or
provide work and recreational opportunities for status offenders,
juvenile delinquents and other youth to help prevent delinquency;
(4) Projects designed to develop and implement programs
stressing advocacy activities aimed at improving services for and
protecting rights of youth affected by the juvenile justice system;
(5) Educational programs or supportive services designed to
encourage status offenders, juvenile delinquents, and other youth
to remain in elementary and secondary schools or in alternative learning situations;
(6) Expanded use of professional and paraprofessional
personnel and volunteers to work effectively with youth;
(7) Youth initiated programs and outreach programs designed to
assist youth who otherwise would not be reached by traditional
youth assistance programs; and
(8) A statewide program designed to reduce the number of
commitments of juveniles to any form of juvenile facility as a
percentage of the state juvenile population; to increase the use of
nonsecure community-based facilities as a percentage of total
commitments to juvenile facilities; and to discourage the use of
secure incarceration and detention.
(b) The Department of Health and Human Resources shall
establish, within the funds available, an individualized program of
rehabilitation for each status offender referred to the department
and to each alleged juvenile delinquent referred to the department
after being allowed an improvement period by the juvenile court,
and for each adjudicated juvenile delinquent who, after
adjudication, is referred to the department for investigation or
treatment or whose custody is vested in the department. Such
individualized program of rehabilitation shall take into account
the programs and services to be provided by other public or private
agencies or personnel which are available in the community to deal
with the circumstances of the particular juvenile. For alleged
juvenile delinquents and status offenders, such individualized
program of rehabilitation shall be furnished to the juvenile court and shall be available to counsel for the juvenile; it may be
modified from time to time at the direction of the department or by
order of the juvenile court. The department may develop an
individualized program of rehabilitation for any juvenile referred
for noncustodial counseling under section five, article three of
this chapter, for any juvenile receiving counsel and advice under
section three-a, article five of this chapter, or for any other
juvenile upon the request of a public or private agency.
(c) The Department of Health and Human Resources and the
Division of Juvenile Services are authorized and directed to enter
into cooperative arrangements and agreements with each other and
with private agencies or with agencies of the state and its
political subdivisions to fulfill their respective duties under
this article and chapter.
To facilitate reimbursement of expenses
incurred by the Division of Juvenile Services in housing juvenile
status offenders pursuant to the provisions of this article, there
is created within the State Treasury a special revenue account to
be known as the Juvenile Services Status Offender Fund, which shall
consist of moneys paid into the account by the Department of Health
and Human Resources to the Division of Juvenile Services for
expenses incurred in housing juvenile status offenders. The
Department of Health and Human Services and the Division of
Juvenile Services shall jointly establish a per diem rate to be
paid into the fund by the Department of Health and Human Resources
for each juvenile status offender housed in a Division of Juvenile
Services facility pursuant to the provisions of this article. The Director of Juvenile Services is authorized to make expenditures
from the fund in accordance with the provisions of article three,
chapter twelve of this code to offset expenses incurred by the
Division of Juvenile services in housing juvenile status offenders.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create a special revenue
account in the State Treasury known as the Juvenile Services Status
Offender Fund to facilitate reimbursement of expenses incurred by
the Division of Juvenile Services in housing juvenile status
offenders.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.