Senate Bill No. 500

(By Senator Fanning)

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[Introduced February 11, 1999;

referred to the Committee on Finance.]

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A BILL to amend article twenty, chapter thirty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section nine-b, relating to not requiring counties to maintain a jail after a regional jail becomes available; allowing counties to maintain holding facilities; and allowing counties to enter into agreements with regional jails relative to housing inmates in the county facility.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article twenty, chapter thirty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section nine- b, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2O. WEST VIRGINIA REGIONAL JAIL AND CORRECTIONAL FACILITY AUTHORITY.
§31-20-9b. When county jail not required; holding facility option; other county jail options.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the contrary, any county commission providing and maintaining a jail on the effective date of this section is not required to provide and maintain a jail after a regional jail becomes available pursuant to the provisions of this article, unless the county commission determines that such a facility is necessary: Provided, That the county commission may provide and maintain a holding facility which complies with the standards set forth for such holding facilities in legislative rules promulgated by the jail and correctional facility standards commission or its predecessor, the jail and prison standards commission. Any county commission that determines it is necessary to continue to provide and maintain a county jail after a regional jail becomes available, and which is operating on the effective date of this section a county jail that meets the jail and correctional facility standards promulgated by the jail and correctional facility standards commission, is not required to incarcerate in the available regional jail all inmates who would otherwise have been incarcerated in the county jail unless the county commission elects to do so. Any such county commission which continues to operate a county jail meeting the jail and correctional facility standards may enter into mutual agreements with the regional jail and correctional facility authority to incarcerate all or a certain number of that county's inmates at the regional jail depending upon the availability of space and other relevant factors.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to relieve counties of the necessity of maintaining a jail where regional jail facilities are available, while allowing counties certain options in meeting their inmate detention needs.

§31-20-9b is new; therefore, underlining and strike-throughs have been omitted.