ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 579
(Senators Love and Hunter, original sponsors)
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[Passed April 12, 2001; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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AN ACT to amend and reenact section six, article four, chapter
twenty-five of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to assignment of
offenders to center; period of center confinement; return to
court; sentence or probation; revocation of probation; and
transfer of youths by commissioner of corrections.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section six, article four, 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 4. CENTERS FOR HOUSING YOUNG ADULT OFFENDERS.
§25-4-6. Assignment of offenders to center; period of center
confinement; return to court; sentence or probation; revocation of probation.
The judge of any court with original criminal jurisdiction may
suspend the imposition of sentence of any young adult, as defined
in this section, convicted of or pleading guilty to a felony
offense, other than an offense punishable by life imprisonment,
including, but not limited to, felony violations of the provisions
of chapter seventeen-c of this code, who has attained his or her
eighteenth birthday but has not reached his or her twenty-third
birthday at the time of the sentencing by the court and commit the
young adult to the custody of the West Virginia commissioner of
corrections to be assigned to a center. Young adult offenders who
have previously been committed to a young adult offender center are
not eligible for commitment to this program. The period of
confinement in the center shall be for a period of not less than
six months or longer to successfully complete the program
requirements set by the warden, but in any event the period of
confinement may not exceed two years. The court shall order a
presentence investigation to be conducted and provide the warden
with a copy of the presentence investigation report, along with the
commitment order.
If, in the opinion of the warden, the young adult offender
proves to be an unfit person to remain in the center, the offender
shall be returned to the committing court to be dealt with further according to law. In that event, the court may sentence the
offender for the crime for which the offender was convicted. In
his or her discretion, the judge may allow the defendant credit on
the sentence for time the offender spent in the center.
A young adult offender shall be returned to the jurisdiction
of the court which originally committed the offender when, in the
opinion of the warden, the young adult offender has satisfactorily
completed the center training program. The offender is then
eligible for probation for the offense with which the offender is
charged and the judge of the court shall immediately place the
offender on probation. In the event the offender's probation is
subsequently revoked, the judge shall impose the sentence the young
adult offender would have originally received had the offender not
been committed to the center and subsequently placed on probation.
The court shall, however, give the offender credit on his or her
sentence for the time spent in the center.