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Committee Substitute House Bill 4570 History

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Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE

FOR

H. B. 4570


(By Delegates Stemple, Mahan, Browning, Proudfoot,

Long, Perry, Hrutkay, Varner and Webster)

(Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary)

[February 22, 2008]


A BILL to amend and reenact §31-20-27a of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to authorizing regional jail employees to carry a firearm after receiving appropriate certification; and expanding their arrest authority.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §31-20-27a of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 20. WEST VIRGINIA REGIONAL JAIL AND CORRECTIONAL FACILITY AUTHORITY.

§31-20-27a. Regional jail employees right to carry firearm; arrest authority of correctional officers.

(a) The executive director may issue a certificate authorizing any regional jail employee who has successfully completed the authority's training program for firearms certification, which shall be the equivalent of that required of deputy sheriffs, to carry firearms and concealed weapons while on duty. Any regional jail employee authorized by the executive director has the right, without a state license, to carry firearms and concealed weapons while on duty, pursuant to the provisions and limitations of this section. Each employee authorized by the executive director shall carry with him or her a certificate, authorizing him or her to carry a firearm or concealed weapon when performing his or her official duties as a regional jail employee, bearing the official signature of the executive director and administrator. The right is extended to a regional jail employee during the time the employee travels from place to place within the state for the purpose of transporting inmates, and during the time the employee is pursuing and apprehending escaped inmates, and during any other time the employee is performing official duties as a regional jail employee. The regional jail employee's carrying of a firearm or concealed weapon while on regional jail property must also comply with rules and procedures established by the Regional Jail Authority. No regional jail employee has the right to carry a firearm or concealed weapon for any other purpose or during any other time, including when traveling to and from the employee's residence and a regional jail, unless the employee has obtained a state license in the manner prescribed in article seven, chapter sixty-one of this code.
(a) (b) 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, to detain persons for violations of state law committed on the property of any regional jail, and to conduct investigations, pursue and apprehend escapees from the custody of regional jail.
(b) (c) 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.



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