Senate Bill No. 521
(By Senator Jackson, By Request)
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[Introduced February 19, 1996; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section one-a, article eleven-a,
chapter sixty-two of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to community
service being credited against criminal fine or confinement.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one-a, article eleven-a, chapter sixty-two of
the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one,
as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 11A. RELEASE FOR WORK AND OTHER PURPOSES.
§62-11A-1a. Other sentencing alternatives.
(a) Any person who has been convicted in a circuit court or
in a magistrate court under any criminal provision of this code
of a misdemeanor or felony, which is punishable by
imposition of a fine or confinement in the county
or regional jail
or the state
penitentiary, or both fine and confinement, may, in the
discretion of the sentencing judge or magistrate, as an
alternative to the sentence imposed by statute for such crime,
be sentenced under one of the following programs:
(1) The weekend jail program under which persons would be
required to spend weekends or other days normally off from work
in jail;
(2) The work program under which sentenced persons would be
required to spend the first two or more days of their sentence in
jail and then, in the discretion of the court, would be assigned
to a county agency to perform labor within the jail, or in and
upon the buildings, grounds, institutions, bridges, roads,
including orphaned roads used by the general public, and public
works within the county. Eight hours of such labor shall be
credited as one day of the sentence imposed. Persons sentenced
under this program may be required to provide their own
transportation to and from the work site, lunch and work clothes;
or
(3) The community service program under which persons
sentenced would spend no time in jail but would be sentenced to a number of hours or days of community service work with tax
supported agencies.
Regarding any portion of the sentence
designated as confinement, eight hours of service work shall be
credited as one day of the sentence imposed.
Regarding any
portion of the sentence designated as a fine, the fine and the
attendant costs shall be credited at an hourly rate equal to the
prevailing federal minimum wage at the time the sentence was
imposed. In the discretion of the court, such sentence credits
may run concurrently or consecutively. Persons sentenced under
this program may be required to provide their own transportation
to and from the work site, lunch and work clothes.
(b) In no event may the duration of the alternate sentence
exceed the maximum period of incarceration otherwise allowed.
(c) In imposing a sentence under the provisions of this
section, the court shall first make the following findings of
fact and incorporate them into the court's sentencing order:
(1) The person sentenced was not convicted of an offense for
which a mandatory period of confinement is imposed by statute;
(2) In circuit court cases, that the person sentenced is not
a habitual criminal within the meaning of sections eighteen and
nineteen, article eleven, chapter sixty-one of this code;
(3) In circuit court cases, that adequate facilities for the
administration and supervision of alternative sentencing programs
are available through the court's probation officers or the
county sheriff or, in magistrate court cases, that adequate
facilities for the administration and supervision of alternative
sentencing programs are available through the county sheriff; and
(4) That an alternative sentence under provisions of this
article will best serve the interests of justice.
(d) Persons sentenced by the circuit court under the
provisions of this article shall remain under the administrative
custody and supervision of the court's probation officers or the
county sheriff. Persons sentenced by a magistrate shall remain
under the administrative custody and supervision of the county
sheriff.
(e) Persons sentenced under the provisions of this section
may be required to pay the costs of their incarceration,
including meal costs, at the discretion of the court.
(f) Persons sentenced under the provisions of this section
remain under the jurisdiction of the court. The court may
withdraw any alternative sentence at any time by order entered
with or without notice and require that the remainder of the sentence be served in the county jail:
Provided, That no
alternative sentence directed by the sentencing judge or
magistrate or administered under the supervision of the sheriff,
his
or her deputies, a jailer or a guard, shall require the
convicted person to perform duties which would be considered
detrimental to the convicted person's health as attested by a
physician.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide a method to
credit community service against a criminal fine.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.