CONTENTS | < PREVIOUS | NEXT > | BILL INDEX

Prisons and Other Methods of Correction

P Passed

P HB509

Restriction on suits against prisoners. Expands the types of lawsuits that may be filed against a prisoner without the appointment of a committee to include suits for divorce. Currently such actions are limited to actions to establish a parent and child relationship between a child and a prisoner and actions to establish a prisoner's child support obligation. This addition avoids the possibility that the failure to appoint a committee would result in the continuation of an unwanted marriage.

Patron - Cranwell

P HB611

Prisons and other methods of corrections. Conforms the monthly inmate data reporting by regional jail superintendents with that for sheriff-run local jails. Superintendents of regional jails will be required to report to the Compensation Board whereas currently they make such reports to the Director of Corrections. The time frame for reporting monthly data is also changed from five to 10 days following the end of the month. The 1997 General Assembly made these same changes for sheriff-run local jails.

Patron - Kilgore

P HB985

Corrections; guards. Requires that officers in state correctional facilities must be the same gender as the inmates when the inmate is required to disrobe. This rule can be suspended in times of a declared emergency.

Patron - Rhodes

P HB1004

Prisoners' alternative sentencing programs. Increases from a Class 2 misdemeanor to a Class 1 misdemeanor for a prisoner to leave, without proper authority, his work release program, his place of home electronic monitoring, or his limits of confinement of electronic monitoring or to fail to return to such programs. Any prisoner found guilty of such violation will be ineligible for further participation in such a program.

Patron - Jones, J.C.

P HB1080

Restoration of civil rights to convicted felons. Requires the Director of the Department of Corrections to provide for notice to certain felons (certain violent, drug and voting felonies are excluded), at the time of completing service of sentence, probation, and parole, of their loss of civil rights and the process for restoring civil rights. The bill also directs the Secretary of the Commonwealth to advise applicants for restoration of civil rights of the fact that their application is complete and the date of its transmittal to the Governor. The bill provides procedures for petitioning the circuit court, criteria for approval by the court and approval of the court order by the Governor.

Patron - Jones, J.C.

P SB329

Alternative incarceration programs. Allows parolees to participate in the detention center incarceration program or the diversion center incarceration program upon a violation of parole, provided the parole violation was not a felony or a Class 1 or 2 misdemeanor.

Patron - Norment

P SB399

Prisons and other methods of corrections. Conforms the monthly inmate data reporting by regional jail superintendents with that for sheriff-run local jails. Superintendents of regional jails will be required to report to the Compensation Board whereas currently they make such reports to the Director of Corrections. The time frame for reporting monthly data is also changed from five to 10 days following the end of the month. The 1997 General Assembly made these same changes for sheriff-run local jails.

Patron - Trumbo

P SB692

Minimum standards for local jails. Allows the Board of Corrections to adopt square footage standards that are no stricter than nationally accepted standards.

Patron - Stolle

F Failed

F HB178

Authority of jail superintendents and jail officers. Provides that jail superintendents and jail officers, including those of the regional jails, shall have the same authority as conservators of the peace while pursuing a prisoner who has escaped from the facility while being transported to and from the facility, providing security and supervision of prisoners taken to a medical, dental, or psychiatric facility, and providing a security escort and supervision of prisoners transported to a funeral or graveside service.

Patron - Pollard

F HB289

Prisons; felonies by prisoners. Makes it a Class 5 felony for a prisoner to procure, sell, secrete or possess a Schedule IV, V, or VI drug as defined in the Drug Control Act.

Patron - Phillips

F HB790

Department of Corrections; overtime work policy. Directs the Department of Corrections to provide credit or compensation for overtime in an amount equal to the number of hours actually worked. Currently Departmental employees are compensated for a maximum of eight hours of overtime, regardless of the number of hours actually worked.

Patron - Deeds

F HB960

Jail; good time credit. Allows the sheriff or jail administrator to grant prisoners serving a sentence of 24 months or less who participate in work programs credits to their sentences not to exceed one day for each day served. Current law prohibits the earning of any type of credit in excess of 15 percent of his sentence by a prisoner committed to jail upon a felony offense.

Patron - Keister

F HB1374

State reimbursement for jail construction. Requires the state to reimburse a locality 40 percent of the capital costs of a jail construction project necessitated by the closing of a state certified jail farm.

Patron - Armstrong

F SB11

Authority of jail superintendents and jail officers. Provides that jail superintendents and jail officers, including those of the regional jails, shall have the same authority as conservators of the peace while pursuing a prisoner who has escaped from the facility while being transported to and from the facility, providing security and supervision of prisoners taken to a medical, dental, or psychiatric facility, and providing a security escort and supervision of prisoners transported to a funeral or graveside service.

Patron - Chichester

F SJ54

Super-maximum security facilities. Directs the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) to study the operation of the two super-maximum security facilities, Red Onion and Wallen's Ridge State Prisons, operated by the Department of Corrections. In its study, JLARC shall include (i) an analysis of the extent to which the Department's classification system is, in fact, ensuring that only dangerous, predatory or escape-risk inmates are being confined at Level 6 facilities, including an analysis of criteria and procedures for placement at and release from these facilities; (ii) an evaluative comparison of the Department's classification system, as it pertains to the placement of inmates in its Level 6 facilities and of the Department's use of segregation in Level 6 facilities, with best practices models in other states; (iii) an analysis of the need for two super-maximum security facilities in Virginia given current population projections and analysis of proportion of inmates who are dangerous or disruptive; (iv) an evaluation of the inmate and staff safety at Red Onion and Wallen's Ridge State Prisons; (v) the number of inmates annually at Red Onion and Wallen's Ridge State Prisons who are eligible for parole or who are serving less than life sentences and who may one day re-enter society; (vi) an assessment of the number of inmates at Level 6 facilities who are mentally ill and whether confinement of mentally ill inmates in super-maximum facilities is consistent with their treatment needs; (vii) an evaluation of the extent to which inmate programs that reduce idleness and promote development of personal, educational and vocational skills could be increased at the Commonwealth's Level 6 facilities without jeopardizing safety and security; and (viii) an analysis of the extent to which super-maximum security facilities contribute to the fulfillment of the Commonwealth's rehabilitation mandate.

Patron - Howell

C Carried Over

C HB91

Sheriffs; jail superintendents; defraying prisoners' keep. Allows sheriffs and jail superintendents to establish programs, in accordance with regulations promulgated by the Board of Corrections, to defray the costs associated with prisoners' keep.

Patron - Landes

C HB446

Interstate Compact for Adult Offender Supervision. Sets out the Interstate Compact which, if adopted, would become effective July 1, 2001, and replaces the existing Interstate Corrections Compact. A study resolution is being introduced to direct the Crime Commission to study the Compact to determine if Virginia should adopt the new Compact.

Patron - Kilgore

C HB1426

Department of Corrections; Virginia Correctional Enterprises. Provides for the July 1, 2002, elimination of the mandatory source requirement for departments, institutions and agencies, supported in whole or in part with funds from the state treasury, to purchase articles and services produced or manufactured by persons confined in state correctional facilities. The bill also requires Virginia Correctional Enterprises to comply with the Public Procurement Act and prohibits VCE from (i) using special bidding practices; (ii) the using the drawings, specifications, quotations or other proprietary information developed by private companies to develop a bid; and (iii) employing design personnel. The bill clarifies that only the Director of the Division of Purchases and Supply is authorized to grant exemptions from the mandatory source requirement, while it remains in effect, and that the Director is required to make determinations regarding requests for such exemptions within 30 days of receipt. The Virginia Correctional Enterprises Advisory Board and Department of Corrections must report to the Governor and the General Assembly in 2001, 2002 and 2003 regarding the status of and progress made towards the elimination of the mandatory source requirement. The bill is a recommendation of the Joint Subcommittee Studying Prison Industries.

Patron - O'Brien

C SB270

Interstate Compact for Adult Offender Supervision. Sets out the Interstate Compact which, if adopted, would become effective July 1, 2001, and replaces the existing Interstate Corrections Compact. See Senate Joint Resolution 86 which directed the Crime Commission to study the Compact to determine if Virginia should adopt it.

Patron - Miller, Y.B.

C SB764

State reimbursement for jail construction. Requires the state to reimburse a locality 40 percent of the capital costs of a jail construction project necessitated by the closing of a state certified jail farm.

Patron - Reynolds