Bill Summary – FastDemocracy

202125042H 202125041S
  WEST VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE
SECOND EXTRAORIDINARY SESSION
                    Introduced House Bill 223
    BY DELEGATES HANSHAW (MR. SPEAKER) AND SKAFF
             (BY REQUEST OF THE EXECUTIVE)
   [Introduced June 24, 2021; Referred to the Committee on Finance]
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     A BILL to amend and reenact §15A-3-16 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to extending the expiration date of the freeze of the per diem rate to July 1, 2022; and clarifying that the per diem cost for incarcerated inmates in a regional jail is calculated annually and from the previous three fiscal years of actual costs.
     Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
     ARTICLE 3. DIVISION OF CORRECTIONS AND REHABILITATION.
  §15A-3-16. Funds for operations of jails under the jurisdiction of the commissioner.
          (a) Any special revenue funds previously administered by the Regional Jail and
  Correctional Facility Authority or its Executive Director are continued, and shall be administered
  by the commissioner.
         (b) Funds that have been transferred by §15A-3-16(a) of this code shall be limited in use
  to operations of jail functions, and for payment to the Regional Jail and Correctional Facility
  Authority Board, for payment of indebtedness. In no case shall a fund be utilized to offset or pay
  operations of nonjail parts of the facility: Provided, That funds may be utilized on a pro rata basis
  for shared staff and for operational expenses of facilities being used as both prisons and jails.
        (c) Whenever the commissioner determines that the balance in these funds is more than
 the immediate requirements of this article, he or she may request that the excess be invested
 until needed. Any excess funds so requested shall be invested in a manner consistent with the
 investment of temporary state funds. Interest earned on any moneys invested pursuant to this
 section shall be credited to these funds.
        (d) These funds consist of the following:
        (1) Moneys collected and deposited in the State Treasury which are specifically
 designated by Acts of the Legislature for inclusion in these funds;
        (2) Contributions, grants, and gifts from any source, both public and private, specifically
 directed to the operations of jails under the control of the commissioner;
        (3) All sums paid pursuant to §15A-3-16(g) of this code; and
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          (4) All interest earned on investments made by the state from moneys deposited in these
 funds.
          (e) The amounts deposited in these funds shall be accounted for and expended in the
 following manner:
          (1) Amounts deposited shall be pledged first to the debt service on any bonded
 indebtedness;
          (2) After any requirements of debt service have been satisfied, the Commissioner shall
 requisition from these funds the amounts that are necessary to provide for payment of the
 administrative expenses of this article, as limited by this section;
          (3) The commissioner shall requisition from these funds, after any requirements of debt
 service have been satisfied, the amounts that are necessary for the maintenance and operation
 of jails under his or her control. These funds shall make an accounting of all amounts received
 from each county by virtue of any filing fees, court costs or fines required by law to be deposited
 in these funds and amounts from the jail improvement funds of the various counties;
          (4) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this article, sums paid into these funds by each
 county pursuant to §15A-3-16(g) of this code for each inmate shall be placed in a separate
 account and shall be requisitioned from these funds to pay for costs incurred; and
          (5) Any amounts deposited in these funds from other sources permitted by this article shall
 be expended based on particular needs to be determined by the commissioner.
          (f)(1) After a jail facility becomes available pursuant to this article for the incarceration of
 inmates, each county within the region shall incarcerate all persons whom the county would have
 incarcerated in any jail prior to the availability of the jail facility in the jail facility, except those
 whose incarceration in a local jail facility used as a local holding facility is specified as appropriate
 under the previously promulgated, and hereby transferred standards and procedures developed
 by the Jail Facilities Standards Commission, and whom the sheriff or the circuit court elects to
 incarcerate therein.
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        (2) Notwithstanding the provisions of §15A-3-16(f)(1) of this code, circuit and magistrate
 courts are authorized to:
        (A) Detain persons who have been arrested or charged with a crime in a county or
 municipal jail specified as appropriate under the standards and procedures referenced in §15A-
 3-16(f)(1), for a period not to exceed 96 hours; or
        (B) Commit persons convicted of a crime in a county or municipal jail, specified as
 appropriate under the standards and procedures referenced in §15A-3-16(f)(1) of this code, for a
 period not to exceed 14 days.
        (g) When inmates are placed in a jail facility under the jurisdiction of the commissioner
 pursuant to §15A-3-16(f) of this code, the county, and municipality if the incarceration is a
 municipal violation, shall pay into this fund a cost per day for each incarcerated inmate, to be
 determined by the state Budget Office annually by examining the most recent three fiscal years
 of costs submitted by the commissioner for the cost of operating the jail facilities and units under
 his or her jurisdiction, and taking an average per day, per inmate cost of maintaining the
 operations of the jail facilities or units: Provided, That beginning July 1, 2018, and continuing
 through July 1, 2021 2022, in no case shall any county or municipality be required to pay a rate
 that exceeds $48.25 per day, per inmate. Nothing in this section shall be construed to mean that
 the per diem cannot be decreased or be less than $48.25 per day per inmate.
        (h) The per diem costs for incarcerating inmates may not include the cost of construction,
 acquisition, or renovation of the regional jail facilities: Provided, That each jail facility or unit
 operating in this state shall keep a record of the date and time that an inmate is incarcerated, and
 a county may not be charged for a second day of incarceration for an individual inmate until that
 inmate has remained incarcerated for more than 24 hours. After that, in cases of continuous
 incarceration, subsequent per diem charges shall be made upon a county only as subsequent
 intervals of 24 hours pass from the original time of incarceration.
        (i) The county is responsible for costs incurred by the division for housing and maintaining
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     Intro SB                                                                      202125042H 202125041S
 inmates in its facilities who are pretrial inmates and convicted misdemeanants. The costs of
 housing shall be borne by the division on a felony conviction on which an inmate is incarcerated
 beginning the calendar day following the day of sentencing: Provided, That beginning July 1,
 2019, the costs of housing shall be borne by the division on a felony conviction when an inmate
 is incarcerated beginning the calendar day following the day of conviction. In no case shall the
 county be responsible for any costs of housing and maintaining felony convicted inmate
 populations.
        (j) The county is responsible for the costs incurred by the authority for housing and
 maintaining an inmate who, prior to a felony conviction on which the inmate is incarcerated and
 is awaiting transportation to a state correctional facility for a 60 day evaluation period as provided
 in §62-12-7a of this code.
        (k) On or before July 1, 2020, the commissioner shall prepare a report on the feasibility of
 phasing out the county and municipal per diem charges required by §15A-3-16(g) of this code.
 This report shall include information regarding savings realized because of the consolidation of
 the former Division of Corrections, Division of Juvenile Services, and the operations of the
 Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority, as well as any other recommendations that might
 ease the burden of paying the per diem inmate costs by the counties or municipalities. On or
 before January 1, 2019, January 1, 2020 and January 1, 2021, the commissioner shall report to
 the Joint Committee on Government and Finance and the co-chairmen of the Joint Standing
 Committee on Finance the actual per diem rate as calculated pursuant to §15A-3-16(g) of this
 code and any amount not assessed to counties if the actual per diem cost is larger than the
 amount charged to the counties or municipalities pursuant to §15A-3-16(g) between July 1, 2018
 and July 1, 2021.
            NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to extend the expiration date of the freeze of the per diem rate to July 1, 2022.
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Intro SB                                                                    202125042H 202125041S
       Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.
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Statutes affected: 
Introduced Version: 15A-3-16