COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 411
(By Senators Kessler, Oliverio, Foster, Green,
Minard, Stollings,
Wells, Barnes, Hall and Yoder)
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[Originating in the Committee on Finance;
reported February 14, 2007.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new article, designated §25-1B-1, §25-1B-2,
§25-1B-3, §25-1B-4, §25-1B-5, §25-1B-6 and §25-1B-7, all
relating to creation of the West Virginia Correctional Center
Nursery Act; defining terms; establishing eligibility
requirements and terms of participation; providing for
termination from the program; authorizing collection of child
support; requiring assignment of child support to the Division
of Corrections; requiring a portion of child support and other
moneys collected on behalf of a mother or child to be saved
and given to the mother upon her release; creating the
Correctional Center Nursery Fund; authorizing the Division of
Corrections to accept grants, gifts and other moneys;
authorizing expenditures from the fund; and allowing voluntary regulation of 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 article, designated §25-1B-1, §25-1B-2,
§25-1B-3, §25-1B-4, §25-1B-5, §25-1B-6 and §25-1B-7, all to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 1B. WEST VIRGINIA CORRECTIONAL CENTER NURSERY ACT.
§25-1B-1. Authorization; definitions.
(a) The Division of Corrections may establish a correctional
center nursery in one or more of the correctional centers for women
operated by the division. The program would allow eligible inmates
and children born to them while in the custody of the division to
reside together in the institution. In establishing this program,
neither the inmate's participation in the program nor any provision
of this article shall affect, modify or interfere with the inmate's
custodial rights to the child nor does it establish legal custody
of the child with the division.
(b) As used in this article:
(1) "Correctional Center Nursery Program" means the program
authorized by this article.
(2) "Public assistance" means all forms of assistance,
including monetary assistance from any public source paid either to
the mother or child or any other person on behalf of the child.
(3) "Support" means the payment of money, including interest:
(A) For a child or spouse ordered by a court of competent
jurisdiction, whether the payment is ordered in an emergency,
temporary, permanent or modified order, the amount of unpaid
support shall bear simple interest from the date it accrued, at a
rate of ten dollars upon one hundred dollars per annum, and
proportionately for a greater or lesser sum, or for a longer or
shorter time;
(B) To third parties on behalf of a child or spouse,
including, but not limited to, payments to medical, dental or
educational providers, payments to insurers for health and
hospitalization insurance, payments of residential rent or mortgage
payments, payments on an automobile or payments for day care; or
(C) For a mother, ordered by a court of competent
jurisdiction, for the necessary expenses incurred by or for the
mother in connection with her confinement or of other expenses in
connection with the pregnancy of the mother.
(4) "Support order" means an award of support by order of a
court of competent jurisdiction.
§25-1B-2. Eligible inmates.
An inmate is eligible to participate in the Correctional
Center Nursery Program if she is pregnant at the time she is
delivered into the custody of the Division of Corrections; she
gives birth on or after the date the program is implemented; and
she and the child meet any other criteria established by the division. Placement into the nursery program shall be by internal
classification of the division. A sentencing court is without
jurisdiction to order a placement of an inmate into the nursery
program.
§25-1B-3. Terms of participation.
To participate in the Correctional Center Nursery Program,
each eligible inmate selected by the division shall agree in
writing to:
(1) Comply with any educational, counseling or other
requirements established for the program by the Division of
Corrections;
(2) If eligible, have the child participate in the Medicaid
program or a health insurance program;
(3) Accept the normal risks of child bearing;
(4) Abide by any court decisions regarding the allocation of
parental rights and responsibilities with respect to the child;
(5) Assign to the division any rights to support from any
other person; and
(6) Specify with whom the child is to be placed in the event
the inmate's participation in the program is terminated for a
reason other than release from imprisonment.
§25-1B-4. Termination of inmate's participation in program.
An inmate's participation in the Correctional Center Nursery
Program may be terminated by the division if one of the following occurs:
(a) The inmate fails to comply with the agreement entered into
under section three of this article;
(b) The inmate's child becomes seriously ill, cannot meet
medical criteria established by the division for the program or
otherwise cannot safely participate in the program;
(c) A court of competent jurisdiction issues an order that
designates a person other than the inmate as the child's custodial
parent and legal custodian;
(d) A court of competent jurisdiction grants custody of the
child to a person other than the inmate;
(e) An order is issued granting shared parenting of the child;
(f) An order regarding the child is issued granting temporary,
permanent, or legal custody of the child to a person other than the
inmate, or to a public children services agency or private child
placing agency; or
(g) The inmate is released from imprisonment.
§25-1B-5. Collection of child support.
(a) The rights to support assigned by any inmate shall
constitute an obligation of the person who is responsible for
providing the support to the division for the support provided the
inmate and child pursuant to the Correctional Center Nursery
Program. The Bureau of Child Support Enforcement shall collect
support payments made pursuant to the assignment and forward them to the division.
(b) The division may receive the following:
(1) Money that is assigned or donated on behalf of, and public
assistance provided to, a specific inmate or child participating in
the Correctional Center Nursery Program; and
(2) Money or other property assigned or donated to establish
and maintain the Correctional Center Nursery Program.
(c) Ten percent of the moneys described in this section shall
be placed in the mandatory savings account of the mother for whom
the money was received. The remaining moneys shall be used for
items not covered by other program funds.
§25-1B-6. Program support; Correctional Center Nursery Fund.
The division shall obtain sufficient resources to initiate and
maintain the Correctional Center Nursery Program if the program is
established. The division may accept gifts, grants, property,
funds, money, interest on investment of the fund, materials, labor,
supplies or services from the United States of America or from any
governmental unit or any person, foundation, firm or corporation to
support the program. All moneys collected shall be deposited in a
special revenue account, designated the Correctional Center Nursery
Fund, which is hereby created. Expenditures from the fund shall be
for the purposes set forth in this article and are not authorized
from collections but are to be made only in accordance with
appropriation by the Legislature and in accordance with the provisions of article three, chapter eleven-b of this code:
Provided, That for the fiscal year ending the thirtieth day of June,
two thousand eight, expenditures are authorized from collections
rather than pursuant to appropriation by the Legislature. If there
are sufficient moneys in the fund, they shall be invested by the
West Virginia Investment Management Board in accordance with the
provisions of article six, chapter twelve of this code.
§25-1B-7. Voluntary regulation.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the
contrary, neither the Correctional Center Nursery Program nor the
division, with respect to the program, is subject to any regulation,
licensing or oversight by the Department of Health and Human
Resources unless the division and the Department of Health and Human
Resources agree to voluntary regulation, licensing or oversight.