H. B. 4006


(By Mr. Speaker, Mr. Kiss, and Delegate Ashley)
[By Request of the Executive]
[Introduced January 14, 1998; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary then Finance.]



A BILL to repeal section five-a, article twenty, chapter thirty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended; and to amend and reenact sections one-a, two and ten of said article twenty, all relating to the repeal of bidding procedures; amendment of legislative findings to include juvenile detention and juvenile correctional facilities; creation and uses of special separate accounts controlled by the regional jail authority; clarifying authority to construct and renovate juvenile facilities; operation and maintenance of regional jails; and regional jail and correctional facility development fund.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section five-a, article twenty, chapter thirty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be repealed; that sections one-a, two and ten of said article twenty be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows: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 correctional facilities in this state serve neither the best interests of the inmate population 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 correctional 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 inmate's time and effort to prepare him 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 jails, and correctional facilities, juvenile detention and juvenile 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 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 to overcome personal deficiencies which are educational, vocational, social or psychological in nature;
(4) To investigate the feasibility of individualizing and classifying 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" 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, including such accounts as may be established by the authority properly to account for the expenditure of public funds by that agency.
(h) "Government" means state and federal government, and any political subdivision, agency or instrumentality thereof, corporate or otherwise.
(i) "Inmate" means any 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 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 correctional facility, penitentiary, detention center or other correctional institution, whether for adult or juvenile persons, operated by the department division of corrections or the division of juvenile services.
(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 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 the same meaning as that term is used in section twelve, article eight, chapter seven of this code authorizing work farms for individual counties.
§31-20-10. Regional jail and correctional facility development fund.

(a) The regional jail and correctional facility development fund is hereby created and shall be a special account composed of special accounts in the state treasury. The fund shall operate as a revolving fund whereby all appropriations and payments thereto may be applied and reapplied by the authority for the purposes of this article. Separate accounts may be established within the special account fund for the purpose of identification of various revenue resources and payment of specific obligations. These separate accounts, established by the authority, may include, but not be limited to, construction or renovation of specific facilities, cash control, facility maintenance, individual operating accounts for facilities operated by the authority, and such other separate accounts as may be determined by the authority as necessary for the efficient operation of the authority.
(b) Revenues deposited into the fund shall be used to make payments of interest and shall be pledged as security for bonds, security interests or notes issued or lease-purchase obligations entered into with another state entity by the authority pursuant to this article.
(c) Whenever the authority determines that the balance in the fund is in excess of the immediate requirements of this article, it may request that such excess be invested until needed. In such case such the excess shall be invested in a manner consistent with the investment of the temporary state funds. Interest earned on any money invested pursuant to this section shall be credited to the fund.
(d) If the authority determines that funds held in the fund are in excess of the amount needed to carry out the purposes of this article, it shall take such action as is necessary to release such excess and transfer it to the general fund of the state treasury.
(e) The fund shall consist of the following:
(1) Amounts raised by the authority by the sale of bonds or other borrowing authorized by this article;
(2) Moneys collected and deposited in the state treasury which are specifically designated by acts of the Legislature for inclusion into the fund;
(3) Contributions, grants and gifts from any source, both public and private, which may be used by the authority for any project or projects;
(4) All sums paid by the counties pursuant to subsection (h) of this section; and
(5) All interest earned on investments made by the state from moneys deposited in this fund.
(f) The amounts deposited in the fund shall be accounted for and expended in the following manner:
(1) Amounts raised by the sale of bonds or other borrowing authorized by this article shall be deposited in a separate account within the fund and expended for the purpose of construction and renovation of correctional facilities, including correctional and detention facilities for juveniles, and regional jails for which need has been determined by the authority;
(2) Amounts deposited from all other sources shall be pledged first to the debt service on any bonded indebtedness, including lease-purchase obligations entered into by the authority with another state entity or other obligation incurred by borrowing of the authority;
(3) After any requirements of debt service have been satisfied, the authority shall requisition from the fund such amounts as are necessary to provide for payment of the administrative expenses of this article;
(4) The authority shall requisition from the fund after any requirements of debt service have been satisfied such amounts as are necessary for the maintenance and operation of the correctional facilities or regional jails or both that are constructed pursuant to the plan required by this article and shall expend such amounts for such purpose. The fund shall make an accounting of all amounts received from each county by virtue of any filing fees, court costs or fines required by law to be deposited in the fund and amounts from the jail improvement funds of the various counties. After the expenses of administration have been deducted, the amounts expended in the respective regions from such sources shall be in proportion to the percentage the amount contributed to the fund by the counties in each region bears to the total amount received by the fund from such sources;
(5) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this article, sums paid into the fund by each county pursuant to subsection (h) of this section for each inmate shall be placed in a separate account and shall be requisitioned from the fund to pay for the costs specified in that subsection incurred at the regional jail facility at which each such inmate was incarcerated of operating and maintaining the regional jails in which county inmates are incarcerated; and
(6) Any amounts deposited in the fund from other sources permitted by this article shall be expended in the respective regions based on particular needs to be determined by the authority.
(g) After a regional jail facility becomes available pursuant to this article for the incarceration of inmates, each county within the region shall incarcerate all persons whom the county would have incarcerated in any jail prior to the availability of the regional jail facility in the regional jail facility except those whose incarceration in a local jail facility used as a local holding facility is specified as appropriate under the standards and procedures developed pursuant to section nine of this article and who the sheriff or the circuit court elects to incarcerate therein.
(h) When inmates are placed in a regional jail facility pursuant to subsection (g) of this section, the county shall pay into the regional jail and correctional facility development fund a cost per day for each inmate so incarcerated to be determined by the regional jail and correctional facility authority according to criteria and by procedures established by regulations pursuant to article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code to cover the costs of operating the regional jail facilities of this state to maintain each such inmate which costs shall not include the cost of construction, acquisition or renovation of said regional jail facilities: Provided, That each regional jail facility operating in this state shall keep a record of the date and time of the incarceration of an inmate, and a county may not be charged for a second day of incarceration for an individual inmate until that inmate has remained incarcerated for more than twenty-four hours. Thereafter, in cases of continuous incarceration, subsequent per diem charges shall be made upon a county only as subsequent intervals of twenty-four hours pass from the original time of incarceration.
(i) On and after the first day of November, one thousand nine hundred ninety-three, the amounts as and when specified in section thirty-a, article fifteen, chapter eleven of this code shall be paid into the regional jail and correctional facility development fund. All of the specified amounts deposited in this fund shall be pledged to the repayment of the principal and interest on any revenue bonds or refunding bonds authorized by article twenty, chapter thirty-one of this code, or any lease-purchase obligations entered into with another state entity. On or prior to the first day of January of each year, commencing the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred ninety-four, the authority shall certify to the tax commissioner of the state the principal and interest requirements for the following fiscal year on any revenue bonds or refunding bonds issued or to be issued or lease-purchase obligations entered into or to be entered into with another state entity, on or after the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred ninety-four, and for which moneys contained within the regional jail and correctional facility development fund have been, or will be, pledged for repayment pursuant to this section: Provided, That before the first day of November, one thousand nine hundred ninety-three, the authority shall also certify to the state tax commissioner the principal and interest requirements or lease-purchase obligations entered into by the authority with another state entity for the fiscal year ending on the thirtieth day of June, one thousand nine hundred ninety-four, on any revenue bonds or refunding bonds issued or lease-purchase obligations entered into by the authority with another state entity, by the authority on or after the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred ninety-four. The maximum aggregate face value of bonds that may be issued by the authority, for which moneys in the regional jail and correctional facility development fund are to be pledged, is sixty-one million dollars.
(j) The Legislature hereby finds and declares that the supreme court of appeals of West Virginia has held that the revenue bonds authorized under the school building authority act, as enacted in article nine-d, chapter eighteen of this code prior to the twentieth day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-three, constituted an indebtedness of the state in violation of section four, article ten of the constitution of West Virginia. The Legislature hereby further finds and declares that this section, as well as section thirty, article fifteen, chapter eleven of this code have been reenacted during the second extraordinary session of the West Virginia Legislature in the year one thousand nine hundred ninety-three, and that section thirty-a of said article has been enacted in an attempt to comply with the holding of the supreme court of appeals of West Virginia. The Legislature hereby further finds and declares that the continued construction and improvement of jail and prison facilities and the dedication of the consumers sales tax pursuant to said section to finance such construction and improvement are for the use and benefit of the state, its counties, its municipalities and its other political subdivisions, and such construction and improvement serves the vital public purpose of assuring the physical safety of each citizen and the public at large. The Legislature hereby further finds and declares that it intends, through the reenactment of this section and section thirty, article fifteen, chapter eleven of this code and the enactment of section thirty-a of said article to dedicate a source of state revenue to a special fund for the purpose of paying a portion of the debt service on bonds and refunding bonds issued and lease-purchase obligations entered into by the authority with another state entity, subsequent to the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred ninety-four, the proceeds of which will be utilized for the construction and improvement of jail and prison facilities. The Legislature hereby further finds and declares that it intends, through the reenactment of this section and section thirty, article fifteen, chapter eleven of this code, and the enactment of section thirty-a of said article to comply with the provisions of section four, article ten; section six, article ten; section six-a, article ten; and section one, article twelve of the constitution of West Virginia.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to clearly state that the regional jail authority may construct and maintain juvenile detention and juvenile correction facilities. The bill further creates special accounts and funds for the regional jail authority.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.