COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 344
(By Senators Blatnik, Craigo, Helmick,
Love, Wiedebusch, Yoder and Bowman)
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported February 29, 1996.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section ten, article twenty, chapter
thirty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to regional jail
and correctional facility development fund; submit
statement requiring regional jail authority to submit to
county; requiring county to process statement; requiring
regional jail authority to apply to auditor when amount in
state treasury is due the county for costs associated with
the inmate; and statement of per diem costs for
incarceration of inmates at regional jails.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section ten, article twenty, chapter thirty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 20. WEST VIRGINIA REGIONAL JAIL AND CORRECTIONAL
FACILITY AUTHORITY.
§31-20-10. Regional jail and correctional facility development
fund.
(a) The regional jail and correctional facility development
fund is hereby created and shall be a special account in the
state treasury. The fund shall operate as a revolving fund
whereby all appropriations and payments thereto may be applied
and reapplied by the authority for the purposes of this article.
Separate accounts may be established within the special account
for the purpose of identification of various revenue resources
and payment of specific obligations.
(b) Revenues deposited into the fund shall be used to make
payments of interest and shall be pledged as security for bonds,
security interests or notes issued or lease-purchase obligations
entered into with another state entity by the authority pursuant
to this article.
(c) Whenever the authority determines that the balance in
the fund is in excess of the immediate requirements of this article, it may request that such excess be invested until
needed. In such case such excess shall be invested in a manner
consistent with the investment of the temporary state funds.
Interest earned on any money invested pursuant to this section
shall be credited to the fund.
(d) If the authority determines that funds held in the fund
are in excess of the amount needed to carry out the purposes of
this article, it shall take such action as is necessary to
release such excess and transfer it to the general fund of the
state treasury.
(e) The fund shall consist of the following:
(1) Amounts raised by the authority by the sale of bonds or
other borrowing authorized by this article;
(2) Moneys collected and deposited in the state treasury
which are specifically designated by acts of the Legislature for
inclusion into the fund;
(3) Contributions, grants and gifts from any source, both
public and private, which may be used by the authority for any
project or projects;
(4) All sums paid by the counties pursuant to subsection
(h) of this section; and
(5) All interest earned on investments made by the state
from moneys deposited in this fund.
(f) The amounts deposited in the fund shall be accounted
for and expended in the following manner:
(1) Amounts raised by the sale of bonds or other borrowing
authorized by this article shall be deposited in a separate
account within the fund and expended for the purpose of
construction and renovation of correctional facilities and
regional jails for which need has been determined by the
authority;
(2) Amounts deposited from all other sources shall be
pledged first to the debt service on any bonded indebtedness,
including lease-purchase obligations entered into by the
authority with another state entity or other obligation incurred
by borrowing of the authority;
(3) After any requirements of debt service have been
satisfied, the authority shall requisition from the fund such
amounts as are necessary to provide for payment of the
administrative expenses of this article;
(4) The authority shall requisition from the fund after any
requirements of debt service have been satisfied such amounts as are necessary for the maintenance and operation of the
correctional facilities or regional jails or both that are
constructed pursuant to the plan required by this article and
shall expend such amounts for such purpose. The fund 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 the fund and amounts from the jail improvement
funds of the various counties. After the expenses of
administration have been deducted, the amounts expended in the
respective regions from such sources shall be in proportion to
the percentage the amount contributed to the fund by the
counties in each region bears to the total amount received by
the fund from such sources;
(5) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this article,
sums paid into the fund by each county pursuant to subsection
(h) of this section for each inmate shall be placed in a
separate account and shall be requisitioned from the fund to pay
for the costs specified in that subsection incurred at the
regional jail facility at which each such inmate was
incarcerated; and
(6) Any amounts deposited in the fund from other sources permitted by this article shall be expended in the respective
regions based on particular needs to be determined by the
authority.
(g) After a regional 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 regional jail facility in the regional jail
facility except those whose incarceration in a local jail
facility used as a local holding facility is specified as
appropriate under the standards and procedures developed
pursuant to section nine of this article and who the sheriff or
the circuit court elects to incarcerate therein.
(h) When inmates are placed in a regional jail facility
pursuant to subsection (g) of this section, the county shall pay
into the regional jail and correctional facility development
fund a cost per day for each inmate so incarcerated to be
determined by the regional jail and correctional facility
authority according to criteria and by procedures established by
regulations pursuant to article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of
this code to cover the costs of operating the regional jail facilities of this state to maintain each such inmate which
costs shall not include the cost of construction, acquisition or
renovation of said regional jail facilities:
Provided, That
each regional jail facility operating in this state shall keep
a record of the date and time of the incarceration of an inmate,
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 twenty-four hours.
Thereafter, in cases of continuous incarceration, subsequent per
diem charges shall be made upon a county only as subsequent
intervals of twenty-four hours pass from the original time of
incarceration.
The regional jail authority shall provide any
county utilizing regional jail facilities for the incarceration
of inmates a per diem statement of costs associated with that
incarceration. The statement shall be provided as soon as
practicable after the costs are incurred. The county shall pay
the costs promptly in the manner that other accounts are paid,
Provided, That, notwithstanding the provisions of article five
or five-a, chapter seven of this code, the costs may be paid
pursuant to the provisions of this section. When any sum of
money is in the state treasury that is due to that county, the regional jail and correctional facility authority may apply for
that amount to be applied on the debt owed by the county. Upon
application, the auditor shall report that application to the
county and shall apply the amount due to the county in the state
treasury to the debt owed by that county.
(i) On and after the first day of November, one thousand
nine hundred ninety-three, the amounts as and when specified in
section thirty-a, article fifteen, chapter eleven of this code
shall be paid into the regional jail and correctional facility
development fund. All of the specified amounts deposited in
this fund shall be pledged to the repayment of the principal and
interest on any revenue bonds or refunding bonds authorized by
article twenty, chapter thirty-one of this code, or any lease-
purchase obligations entered into with another state entity. On
or prior to the first day of January of each year, commencing
the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred ninety-four,
the authority shall certify to the tax commissioner of the state
the principal and interest requirements for the following fiscal
year on any revenue bonds or refunding bonds issued or to be
issued or lease-purchase obligations entered into or to be
entered into with another state entity, on or after the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred ninety-four, and for
which moneys contained within the regional jail and correctional
facility development fund have been, or will be, pledged for
repayment pursuant to this section:
Provided, That before the
first day of November, one thousand nine hundred ninety-three,
the authority shall also certify to the state tax commissioner
the principal and interest requirements or lease-purchase
obligations entered into by the authority with another state
entity for the fiscal year ending on the thirtieth day of June,
one thousand nine hundred ninety-four, on any revenue bonds or
refunding bonds issued or lease-purchase obligations entered
into by the authority with another state entity, by the
authority on or after the first day of January, one thousand
nine hundred ninety-four. The maximum aggregate face value of
bonds that may be issued by the authority, for which moneys in
the regional jail and correctional facility development fund are
to be pledged, is sixty-one million dollars.
(j) The Legislature hereby finds and declares that the
supreme court of appeals of West Virginia has held that the
revenue bonds authorized under the school building authority
act, as enacted in article nine-d, chapter eighteen of this code prior to the twentieth day of July, one thousand nine hundred
ninety-three, constituted an indebtedness of the state in
violation of section four, article ten of the constitution of
West Virginia. The Legislature hereby further finds and
declares that this section, as well as section thirty, article
fifteen, chapter eleven of this code have been reenacted during
the second extraordinary session of the West Virginia
Legislature in the year one thousand nine hundred ninety-three,
and that section thirty-a of said article has been enacted in an
attempt to comply with the holding of the supreme court of
appeals of West Virginia. The Legislature hereby further finds
and declares that the continued construction and improvement of
jail and prison facilities and the dedication of the consumers
sales tax pursuant to said section to finance such construction
and improvement are for the use and benefit of the state, its
counties, its municipalities and its other political
subdivisions, and such construction and improvement serves the
vital public purpose of assuring the physical safety of each
citizen and the public at large. The Legislature hereby further
finds and declares that it intends, through the reenactment of
this section and section thirty, article fifteen, chapter eleven of this code and the enactment of section thirty-a of said
article to dedicate a source of state revenue to a special fund
for the purpose of paying a portion of the debt service on bonds
and refunding bonds issued and lease-purchase obligations
entered into by the authority with another state entity,
subsequent to the first day of January, one thousand nine
hundred ninety-four, the proceeds of which will be utilized for
the construction and improvement of jail and prison facilities.
The Legislature hereby further finds and declares that it
intends, through the reenactment of this section and section
thirty, article fifteen, chapter eleven of this code, and the
enactment of section thirty-a of said article to comply with the
provisions of section four, article ten; section six, article
ten; section six-a, article ten; and section one, article twelve
of the constitution of West Virginia.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide a mechanism
whereby the regional jail and correctional facility authority
can, upon application to the auditor, apply funds in the state
treasury due a county against that county's debt to the
authority for the per diem costs of inmate incarceration in
regional jail facilities.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.