ENGROSSED
Senate Bill No. 379
(By Senators Wooton, Yoder, Wiedebusch, Dittmar and White)
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported February 15, 1995.]
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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
twenty-seven-a, relating to arrest authority for correctional
officers employed by the regional jail authority.
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 twenty-
seven-a, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 20. WEST VIRGINIA REGIONAL JAIL AND PRISON AUTHORITY.
§31-20-27a. Arrest authority of correctional officers.
(a) Persons employed by the regional jail authority as
correctional officers are hereby authorized and empowered to make
arrests of persons already charged with a violation of law who
surrender themselves to such correctional officer and to arrest
persons already in the custody of the regional jail authority for
violations of law occurring in the officer's presence.
(b) Nothing in this section shall be construed as to make a
correctional officer employed by the regional jail authority a law-
enforcement officer as defined in section one, article twenty-nine,
chapter thirty of this code.