Senate Bill No. 369
(By Senators Love, White, Hunter, Caruth, McKenzie, Dempsey,
Unger, Plymale and Foster)
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[Introduced January 27, 2006; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §31-20-30, relating
to allowing the Executive Director of the West Virginia
Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority to
establish a work program for qualified inmates sentenced to
a regional jail facility; and specifying minimum
requirements for the program and distribution of money
earned in the program.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §31-20-30, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 20. WEST VIRGINIA REGIONAL JAIL AND CORRECTIONAL
FACILITY AUTHORITY.
§31-20-30. Work program.
The Executive Director of the West Virginia Regional Jail
and Correctional Facility Authority is authorized to propose
rules for legislative approval in accordance with the provisions
of article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code establishing
a work program for qualified inmates sentenced to a regional jail
facility with, at a minimum, provisions providing:
(1) Guidelines and qualifications to allow inmates sentenced
to a regional jail facility to be gainfully employed with local
businesses as part of a job program within each regional jail
facility;
(2) Accounting procedures to ensure that the earnings from
the employment are distributed, in cooperation with any court
order addressing distribution of income or pursuant to the
inmate's sentencing orders, and that provide for the payment of:
(A) Court ordered restitution or fees;
(B) Fifty percent of the cost of incarceration as based on
the approved per diem charges to be placed in the West Virginia
Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority General
Operating Fund; and
(C) All remaining amounts to be placed in a savings account
for the inmate to be given to the inmate at the conclusion of the
inmate's sentence in the regional jail, minus any restitution
that may be owed by the inmate for facility rule infractions.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to
allow the Executive
Director of the West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional
Facility Authority to establish a work program for qualified
inmates sentenced to a regional jail facility. It includes
provisions specifying minimum requirements for the program and
the distribution of money earned in the program.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.
This bill was recommended for introduction and passage
during the 2006 Regular Session of the Legislature by the
Legislative Oversight Committee on the Regional Jail and
Correctional Facility Authority.