Senate Bill No. 233

(By Senator Jackson, By Request)

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[Introduced March 4, 1997; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section sixteen, article four, chapter sixty-two of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended; and to amend and reenact section one-a, article eleven-a of said chapter, all relating to community service being credited against criminal fine or confinement.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section sixteen, article four, chapter sixty-two of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted; and that section one-a, article eleven-a of said chapter be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 4. RECOVERY OF FINES IN CRIMINAL CASES.

§62-4-16. Offenders against municipal ordinances may be required to work on streets.

Whenever any person shall be is convicted for any violation of ordinances or laws of any incorporated city, town or village or for any state criminal statute and shall be is confined in the county jail, or place of confinement adopted and set apart by the council of such the city, town or village, in lieu of the county jail, as a prison house, such as a regional jail, whether such the person be imprisoned held for failure to pay any fine or cost adjudged against him or her, or under sentence of a mayor, police judge or court, magistrate court or circuit court, he or she may be ordered by such the mayor, police judge, magistrate court or circuit court to perform community service work or or court to work on the public streets and alleys roads of such the city, town or village, under the direction of the marshal or sergeant community service program supervising officers of such the county, city, town or village. Such The person so sentenced to fines and costs or imprisonment, fined and imprisoned, when ordered to be worked as hereinbefore provided, shall be worked under the provisions and subject to the penalties prescribed in article fifteen, chapter seventeen article eleven-a of this chapter of this code, insofar as the same are applicable for the calculation of the credit of time served toward the county or municipal court sentence imposed and the prevailing federal minimum wage shall be used for the calculation of the credit of time served for the fines or costs imposed. And the council of such the city, town, or village or the county commission may make proper allowance to the marshal or sergeant municipal police or county sheriff to take charge of such the person or persons while so at work under the community services programs, and allow and pay a reasonable compensation for the supervision services rendered, out of the treasury of such the county, city, town or village.
ARTICLE 11A. RELEASE FOR WORK AND OTHER PURPOSES.

§62-11A-1a. Other sentencing alternatives.

(a) Any person who has been convicted in a circuit court or in a magistrate court under any criminal provision of this code of a misdemeanor or felony, which is punishable by imposition of a fine or confinement in the county or regional jail or the state penitentiary, or both fine and confinement, may, in the discretion of the sentencing judge or magistrate, as an alternative to the sentence imposed by statute for such the crime, be sentenced under one of the following programs:
(1) The weekend jail program under which persons would be required to spend weekends or other days normally off from work in jail;
(2) The work program under which sentenced persons would be required to spend the first two or more days of their sentence in jail and then, in the discretion of the court, would be assigned to a county agency to perform labor within the jail, or in and upon the buildings, grounds, institutions, bridges, roads, including orphaned roads used by the general public and public works within the county. Eight hours of such labor shall be credited as one day of the sentence imposed. Persons sentenced under this program may be required to provide their own transportation to and from the work site, lunch and work clothes; or
(3) The community service program under which persons sentenced would spend no time in jail but would be sentenced to a number of hours or days of community service work with tax supported agencies. Regarding any portion of the sentence designated as confinement, eight hours of service work shall be credited as one day of the sentence imposed. Regarding any portion of the sentence designated as a fine, the fine and the attendant costs shall be credited at an hourly rate equal to the prevailing federal minimum wage at the time the sentence was imposed. In the discretion of the court, the sentence credits may run concurrently or consecutively. Persons sentenced under this program may be required to provide their own transportation to and from the work site, lunch and work clothes.
(b) In no event may the duration of the alternate sentence exceed the maximum period of incarceration otherwise allowed.
(c) In imposing a sentence under the provisions of this section, the court shall first make the following findings of fact and incorporate them into the court's sentencing order:
(1) The person sentenced was not convicted of an offense for which a mandatory period of confinement is imposed by statute;
(2) In circuit court cases, that the person sentenced is not a habitual criminal within the meaning of sections eighteen and nineteen, article eleven, chapter sixty-one of this code;
(3) In circuit court cases, that adequate facilities for the administration and supervision of alternative sentencing programs are available through the court's probation officers or the county sheriff or, in magistrate court cases, that adequate facilities for the administration and supervision of alternative sentencing programs are available through the county sheriff; and
(4) That an alternative sentence under provisions of this article will best serve the interests of justice.
(d) Persons sentenced by the circuit court under the provisions of this article shall remain under the administrative custody and supervision of the court's probation officers or the county sheriff. Persons sentenced by a magistrate shall remain under the administrative custody and supervision of the county sheriff.
(e) Persons sentenced under the provisions of this section may be required to pay the costs of their incarceration, including meal costs, at the discretion of the court.
(f) Persons sentenced under the provisions of this section remain under the jurisdiction of the court. The court may withdraw any alternative sentence at any time by order entered with or without notice and require that the remainder of the sentence be served in the county jail: Provided, That no alternative sentence directed by the sentencing judge or magistrate or administered under the supervision of the sheriff, his or her deputies, a jailer or a guard, shall require the convicted person to perform duties which would be considered detrimental to the convicted person's health as attested by a physician.


NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide a method to credit community service against a criminal fine or confinement.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.