COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 4169
(By Delegates Stemple, Manuel, Warner and Pino)
(Originating in the Committee on Finance)
[February
14, 2000]
A BILL to amend and reenact section fourteen, article one,
chapter twenty-five of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to
the electronic monitoring of offenders program; providing
for the use of fees collected in the program; and removing
certain restrictions on the types of equipment that may be
used.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section fourteen, article one, chapter twenty-five of
the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one,
as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. ORGANIZATION AND INSTITUTIONS.
§25-1-14. Electronic monitoring of offenders; special account.
The commissioner is authorized to use electronic monitoring
equipment to aid in the supervision of inmates offenders.
Inmates Offenders subject to supervision by means of electronic
monitoring equipment shall be charged a reasonable fee, to be established under a legislative rule promulgated by the
commissioner pursuant to chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, to
help defray the costs of the purchase and use of such the
equipment and the division of correction's operational costs:
Provided, That an inmate's offender's inability to pay a fee will
does not preclude the inmate offender from being eligible for
this program.
All moneys fees collected as such fees shall be deposited in
a special account created by prior enactment of this section,
which is hereby created in the state treasury Such account shall
be designated as the "electronic monitoring program account."
and The funds deposited in such the account shall may be used by
the commissioner only for the operation of the program and for
the administration of the division of corrections.
"Electronic monitoring equipment" means an electronic
device or apparatus approved by the department division of
corrections which is limited in capability to recording or
transmitting information as to the furloughed inmate's offender's
presence or nonpresence in a designated area. Such The device
must be minimally intrusive to the privacy of the offender's
family and other persons associated with him or her. The
department of corrections shall not approve any monitoring device
which is capable of recording or transmitting (i) visual images,
(ii) oral or wire communications or any auditory sound, or (iii)
information as to the furloughed inmate's activities while he or
she is within the designated area.