H. B. 4057
(By Delegates Givens, Douglas,
Fleischauer, Facemyer and Trump)
[Introduced January 22, 1998; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact sections one-a, two, five and eight,
article twenty, chapter thirty-one of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
relating to the powers and duties of the regional jail and
correctional facility authority; authorizing the regional
jail and correctional facility authority to construct new
facilities or renovate existing facilities to be used for
secure predisposition detention of juveniles, for juvenile
transfer facilities and for juvenile correctional
facilities; and reducing the number of members of the
regional jail and correctional facility standards
commission.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections one-a, two, five and eight, article twenty,
chapter thirty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to
read as follows:
ARTICLE 20. WEST VIRGINIA REGIONAL JAIL AND CORRECTIONAL
FACILITY AUTHORITY.
§31-20-1a. Legislative findings and purposes.
(a) The Legislature finds as follows:
(1) That existing jails, and adult correctional facilities
and juvenile facilities in this state serve neither the best
interests of the inmate population incarcerated populations of
such jails and facilities nor the citizens of West Virginia;
(2) That due to time constraints established and imposed by
judicial decisions, it is imperative that the Legislature give
immediate and diligent attention to the improvement of existing
facilities and the construction and maintenance of new
facilities, as well as to the development and implementation of
new, innovative and effective programs dealing with incarcerated
persons;
(3) That the physical condition of most existing jails, and
adult correctional facilities and juvenile facilities contribute
to a frustration of efforts to provide rehabilitation, education,
vocational training, and social and psychological adjustment and
improvement for incarcerated persons, to the end that such
existing facilities are utilized largely for the limited purposes of confinement;
(4) That there is a need to examine, understand and
implement various new and innovative trends which are being
advanced in the area of correctional institution design, and to
explore the developing alternatives to incarceration which are
being experimented with in other jurisdictions; and
(5) That the revenues of this state, insofar as they are
currently used to maintain a traditional penal system, are not
efficiently utilized to provide facilities or produce programs
which could direct an adult or juvenile inmate's or detainee's
time and effort to prepare him or her for life outside of
confinement; nor do such revenues provide corrections officials
with the resources necessary to address the issues and problems
with which they are confronted.
(b) The purposes of this article are as follows:
(1) To provide a cost-efficient system within this state for
the construction, maintenance and operation of adult jails and
correctional facilities;
(2) To develop and implement plans for the renovation and
improvement of existing facilities and the design and
construction of new facilities to better serve the inmate
population incarcerated and detained juvenile and adult
populations and the citizens of this state;
(3) To provide an environment in which new and innovative
corrections programs may be considered and undertaken, and in
which opportunities may be offered to inmates incarcerated
persons to overcome personal deficiencies which are educational,
vocational, social or psychological in nature;
(4) To investigate the feasibility of individualizing and
classifying adult inmates according to their psychological and
physical conditions at the time they are incarcerated, and the
feasibility of designing for each such inmate a plan for
self-improvement and rehabilitation.
§31-20-2. Definitions.
Unless the context indicates clearly otherwise, as used in
this article:
(a) "Authority" or "West Virginia Regional Jail Authority"
means the West Virginia regional jail and correctional facility
authority created by this article.
(b) "Board" means the governing body of the authority.
(c) "Bonds" means bonds of the authority issued under this
article.
(d) "Cost of construction or renovation of a local jail
facility, or regional jail facility or juvenile facility" means
the cost of all lands, water areas, property rights and
easements, financing charges, interest prior to and during construction and for a period not exceeding six months following
the completion of construction, equipment, engineering and legal
services, plans, specifications and surveys, estimates of costs
and other expenses necessary or incidental to determining the
feasibility or practicability of any such project, together with
such other expenses as may be necessary or incidental to the
financing and the construction or renovation of such facilities
and the placing of same in operation.
(e) "County" means any county of this state.
(f) "Federal agency" means the United States of America and
any department, corporation, agency or instrumentality created,
designated or established by the United States of America.
(g) "Fund" means the regional jail and correctional facility
development fund provided in section ten of this article.
(h) "Government" means state and federal government, and any
political subdivision, agency or instrumentality thereof,
corporate or otherwise.
(i) "Inmate" means any adult person properly committed to a
local or regional jail facility or a correctional facility.
(j) "Local jail facility" means any county facility for the
confinement, custody, supervision or control of adult persons
convicted of misdemeanors, awaiting trial or awaiting
transportation to a state correctional facility.
(k) "Municipality" means any city, town or village in this
state.
(l) "Notes" means any notes as defined in section one
hundred four, article three, chapter forty-six of this code
issued under this article by the authority.
(m) "Correctional facility" means any adult correctional
facility, penitentiary, detention center or other correctional
institution operated by the department division of corrections.
(n) "Regional jail facility" or "regional jail" means any
facility operated by the authority and used jointly by two or
more counties for the confinement, custody, supervision or
control of adult persons convicted of misdemeanors or awaiting
trial or awaiting transportation to a state correctional
facility.
(o) "Regional jail commission" means the commission
established in section eight of this article.
(p) "Revenues" means all fees, charges, moneys, profits,
payments of principal of, or interest on, loans and other
investments, grants, contributions and all other income received
by the authority.
(q) "Security interest" means an interest in the loan
portfolio of the authority which interest is secured by an
underlying loan or loans and is evidenced by a note issued by the authority.
(r) "Work farm" shall have has the same meaning as that term
is used in section twelve, article eight, chapter seven of this
code authorizing work farms for individual counties.
§31-20-5. Powers and duties of the authority; bidding
procedures.
The regional jail and correctional facility authority shall
complete a comprehensive study of all adult correctional
facilities and jail facilities in the state of West Virginia no
later than the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred
eighty-six. This study shall include an assessment of the
physical conditions of confinement within the institutions and
the relative need for the institutions when considering other
available institutions of confinement located within the state.
After completing this study, the authority shall submit a plan
to the governor on the establishment of regional jails in this
state and the acquisition, construction or renovation of
facilities for correctional facilities. The authority shall
specify groups of counties within the state to be formed into
regions for the establishment of such regional jails. Within
each region a local jail commission shall be established and have
the powers and duties as set forth in section six of this
article.
The authority shall consider, but not be limited to, the
following when creating the plan establishing regions:
(1) The relative physical condition of the correctional
facilities and jail facilities located within the state;
(2) The transportation costs associated with the establishment
of centralized jail services, including, but not limited to, the
costs of transporting persons incarcerated in regional jails to
court appearances, to interviews with their attorneys, and to
have visitation with their families and friends, all in any
county seat of a county served by the regional facility:
Provided,
That consideration of such costs in the creation of the
plan shall not be construed to require the transportation of
inmates to interviews with their attorneys or to have visitation
with their families and friends when visitation facilities and
schedules are established in regional jails;
(3) The availability of medical services and educational and
recreational opportunities;
(4) Information received from public hearings;
(5) The relative efficiency in the cost of jail services
caused by establishment of regional jail facilities;
(6) Available facilities which may be used as regional jails
or correctional facilities including, but not limited to,
existing county and state owned properties: Provided,
That if the authority determines that an existing facility meets the
standards or could reasonably be made to meet the standards for
a regional jail or other correctional facility, the authority may
proceed to acquire such existing facility and compensate the
owner thereof in an amount not less than any local share expended
by the owner as matching moneys for the receipt of federal funds:
Provided, however,
That if the authority determines that an
existing facility does not meet the standards or could not
reasonably be made to meet the standards for a regional jail or
other correctional facility, the authority shall provide the
owner with a written statement setting forth the reasons
supporting such determination;
(7) The cost of acquiring, constructing, renovating, operating
and maintaining local jail facilities for use as local holding
facilities in each county and regional jail facilities for each
county and the financing provided by this article;
(8) The leasing of any available portion of any regional jail
space and the leasing of available facilities of any regional
jail to the West Virginia department division of corrections for
the keeping and detaining of prisoners sentenced to serve terms
of incarceration under the custody of the West Virginia
department division of corrections for nonviolent crimes and to
contract with the department division of corrections for the providing of food, clothing, shelter and any and all incidental
costs in the care, control and maintenance of such prisoners:
Provided,
That such leasing does not restrict space or facilities
needed for the detention of county prisoners;
(9) The advisability and cost effectiveness of acquiring,
constructing, renovating, operating and maintaining work farms
serving one or more counties or regions; and
(10) The proximity of possible sites for the regional jail
facilities to residential areas, schools, churches and other
public buildings and facilities.
Public hearings pursuant to this section shall be held by the
authority in convenient locations throughout the state. No less
than ten public hearings shall be held for public comment on the
establishment of regional jails. The authority shall cause to be
published at least two weeks in advance of a hearing a Class II-0
legal advertisement, as provided in section two, article three,
chapter fifty-nine of this code, setting forth the reason for the
hearing and the time, place and date thereof. The publication
area shall be each county which may be included in a region for
the purposes of a regional jail with the county in which the
public hearing is held.
In addition to the hearing requirements above, before
beginning construction of a new facility for use as a regional jail or correctional facility or before beginning renovation or
acquisition of an existing facility for use as a regional jail
facility, which existing facility is not already a jail,
correctional facility or secure facility for the detention of
juveniles or persons otherwise involuntarily committed or
confined, the authority shall hold a hearing for comment by all
members of the public on all aspects relating to the advisability
of the use of the site for that regional jail facility. The
authority shall promulgate legislative rules pursuant to chapter
twenty-nine-a of this code for the requirements for notice and
other procedures of said public hearings, which requirements
shall be as similar as practicable to those hearings conducted
regarding the construction of bridges by the West Virginia
department of highways.
The authority, as a public corporation and governmental
instrumentality exercising public powers of the state, may
exercise all powers necessary or appropriate to carry out the
purposes of this article, including, but not limited to, the
power:
(a) To acquire, own, hold and dispose of property, real and
personal, tangible and intangible.
(b) To lease property, whether as lessee or lessor.
(c) To mortgage or otherwise grant security interests in its property.
(d) To conduct examinations and investigations and to hear
testimony and take proof, under oath or affirmation at public or
private hearings, on any matter relevant to this article and
necessary for information on the construction or renovation of
any adult correctional facility or juvenile facility or the
establishment of any correctional facility industries project.
(e) To issue subpoenas requiring the attendance of witnesses
and the production of books and papers relevant to any hearing
before such authority or one or more members appointed by it to
conduct any hearing.
(f) To apply to the circuit court having venue of such offense
to have punished for contempt any witness who refuses to obey a
subpoena, refuses to be sworn or affirmed, or refuses to testify,
or who commits any contempt after being summoned to appear.
(g) To sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded, and complain
and defend in any court.
(h) To adopt, use and alter at will a corporate seal.
(i) To make bylaws for the management and regulation of its
affairs pursuant to article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this
code.
(j) To appoint officers, agents and employees.
(k) To make contracts of every kind and nature and to execute all instruments necessary or convenient for carrying on its
business, including contracts with any other governmental agency
of this state or of the federal government or with any person,
individual, partnership or corporation to effect any or all of
the purposes of this article.
(l) Without in any way limiting any other subdivision of this
section, to accept grants from and enter into contracts and other
transactions with any federal agency.
(m) To borrow money and to issue its negotiable bonds,
security interests or notes and to provide for and secure the
payment thereof, and to provide for the rights of the holders
thereof, and to purchase, hold and dispose of any of its bonds,
security interests or notes: Provided,
That no bond or other
obligation may be issued or incurred unless and until the
Legislature by concurrent resolution has approved the purpose and
amount of each project for which proceeds from the issuance of
such bond or other obligation will be used.
(n) To sell, at public or private sale, any bond or other
negotiable instrument, security interest or obligation of the
authority in such manner and upon such terms as the authority
considers would best serve the purposes of this article.
(o) To issue its bonds, security interests and notes payable
solely from the revenues or other funds available to the authority therefor; and the authority may issue its bonds,
security interests or notes in such principal amounts as it
considers necessary to provide funds for any purposes under this
article, including:
(1) The payment, funding or refunding of the principal of,
interest on or redemption premiums on, any bonds, security
interests or notes issued by it whether the bonds, security
interests, notes or interest to be funded or refunded have or
have not become due.
(2) The establishment or increase of reserves to secure or to
pay bonds, security interests, notes or the interest thereon and
all other costs or expenses of the authority incident to and
necessary or convenient to carry out its corporate purposes and
powers. Any bonds, security interests or notes may be
additionally secured by a pledge of any revenues, funds, assets
or moneys of the authority from any source whatsoever.
(p) To issue renewal notes or security interests, to issue
bonds to pay notes or security interests and, whenever it
considers refunding expedient, to refund any bonds by the
issuance of new bonds, whether the bonds to be refunded have or
have not matured except that no such renewal notes shall be
issued to mature more than ten years from date of issuance of the
notes renewed and no such refunding bonds may be issued to mature more than twenty-five years from the date of issuance.
(q) To apply the proceeds from the sale of renewal notes,
security interests or refunding bonds to the purchase, redemption
or payment of the notes, security interests or bonds to be
refunded.
(r) To accept gifts or grants of property, funds, security
interests, money, materials, labor, supplies or services from the
United States of America or from any governmental unit or any
person, firm or corporation, and to carry out the terms or
provisions of, or make agreements with respect to, or pledge, any
gifts or grants, and to do any and all things necessary, useful,
desirable or convenient in connection with the procuring,
acceptance or disposition of gifts or grants.
(s) To the extent permitted under its contracts with the
holders of bonds, security interests or notes of the authority,
to consent to any modification of the rate of interest, time of
payment of any installment of principal or interest, security or
any other term of any bond, security interest, note or contract
or agreement of any kind to which the authority is a party.
(t) To sell security interests in the loan portfolio of the
authority. Such security interests shall be evidenced by
instruments issued by the authority. Proceeds from the sale of
security interests may be issued in the same manner and for the same purposes as bond and note revenues.
(u) To promulgate rules, in accordance with the provisions of
chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, to implement and make
effective the powers, duties and responsibilities invested in the
authority by the provisions of this article and otherwise by law.
(v) To assume the responsibility for operation and management
of regional jail facilities under the jurisdiction of the state
regional jail and correctional facility authority. The authority
shall provide for the transportation of inmates between the
regional jails and local holding facilities for court
appearances.
(w) To exercise all power and authority provided in this
article necessary and convenient to plan, finance, construct,
renovate, maintain and operate or oversee the operation of
regional jails and correctional facilities.
(x) To exercise all power and authority provided in this
article necessary and convenient to plan, finance, construct, and
renovate juvenile detention centers and juvenile correctional
facilities.
(x) (y) To cooperate with the commission for distribution of
surplus foods and to authorize the executive director to exercise
all power and authority provided in this section necessary to
implement the pilot program for delivery of leftover prepared foods at the regional jail located in Marshall County, pursuant
to section seventeen, article two, chapter eighteen of this code.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, the
regional jail and correctional facility authority shall no later
than the first day of November, one thousand nine hundred eighty- nine, submit a plan to the joint committee on government and
finance of the Legislature detailing the means by which the
authority will comply with the mandates of the supreme court of
appeals as to the structural and internal conditions and programs
of the correctional facilities in this state. In preparing such
plan, the authority is to allow for and consider any input from
the public.
§31-20-8. Jail and correctional facility standards commission;
appointment; compensation; vacancies; quorum.
A jail and correctional facility standards commission of
eleven ten members is hereby created. The governor shall appoint
two county sheriffs, to be chosen from a list of three names
provided by the president of the West Virginia sheriff's
association, and three county commissioners, to be chosen from a
list of five names provided by the president of the West Virginia
county commissioner's association. The chief justice of the
state supreme court of appeals shall appoint a representative
from the juvenile facilities review panel. Each of the members so appointed shall serve for a term of three years and be
eligible for reappointment. The commissioner of the department
division of corrections, the director of the department of
health, the state fire marshal, the commissioner of the
department of human services and the director of the division of
vocational education of the state department of education or
their designees shall be members ex officio in an advisory
capacity.
Members of the commission shall serve without compensation,
but may be reimbursed for reasonable and necessary expenses
incurred in the performance of their duties. The regional jail
and correctional facility authority shall provide the commission
with secretarial and other necessary services.
A vacancy among the appointed members of the commission
shall be filled, within thirty days, in the same manner as the
original appointment. A quorum consists of four of the six
voting members. Members of the commission shall select a
chairman.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to authorize the Regional
Jail and Correctional Facility Authority to renovate, plan,
finance and construct secure facilities for the detention or
incarceration of juveniles.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.
This bill is recommended for passage in the 1998 session by
the Joint Legislative Task Force on Juvenile Foster Care,
Detention and Placement.