COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 217
(By Senators Love, Schoonover, Hunter and Kessler)
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported February 25, 1999.]
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A BILL to amend article eight, chapter seven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section thirteen, relating to imposing a processing fee on persons committed to county or regional jails upon conviction.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article eight, chapter seven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section thirteen, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 8. JAIL AND JAILER.
§7-8-13. Jail processing fee.
A person sentenced to serve a period of incarceration in a regional or county jail by order of magistrate or circuit judge shall, at the time of booking into the jail, pay a processing fee of twenty dollars. If the person is unable to pay at the time of booking, the fee shall be deducted, at a rate of fifty percent, from any new deposits made into the person's jail trust account until the jail processing fee is paid in full. The fee shall be credited, as appropriate, to the operating budget of the authority's or county jail's operating budget.
(b) A refund of a fee collected under this section shall be made to a person who has paid the fee if the person is not convicted of the offense for which the person was booked. In the case of multiple offenses, if the person is convicted of any of the offenses the fee may not be refunded. If the person is convicted of a lesser included offense or a related offense, no refund may be made.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to allow regional and county jails to collect a $20 processing fee for each person committed to the jail.

This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.