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| Senator pushes co-pay for inmates |
| By Mannix Porterfield - Register-Herald |
| Published: 02/23/2009 |
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CHARLESTON — Inmates might be forced to shell out $5 as a co-pay every time they go on a non-emergency sick call at West Virginia’s regional jails. That idea has been advanced to the Senate by Sen. Mike Green, D-Raleigh, as part of a package of legislation by an interims panel on which he served, the Oversight Committee on Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority. A second key proposal would enhance the penalty for sexual assaults by or against inmates in prisons, and make it a felony for one of them or a correctional officer to engage in sex with a prisoner. Inmates in regional jails have accounts from which medical co-pays would be drawn under terms of SB250, the senator explained. “According to testimony in the committee, as with anything else, there are some inmates that frequent (medical units) more than others,” Green said. “This is just trying to save the state on those expenses.” Corrections Commissioner Jim Rubenstein sought higher penalties in sexual assaults behind prison walls and an expansion of the law so that inmates and staff would get a harsher penalty in consensual sex acts. “Currently, the penalties for the same crime inside the system (assaults) is less than if it occurs outside,” Green explained. “So this legislation would just bring the felony to 15 to 35 years, making it equivalent to the same violent, aggravated sexual assault that it would bring outside the prison system.” Any conviction would mean a sentence is tacked on so an inmate would serve it consecutively, he pointed out. What’s more, the bill would make it a felony with a prison term of one to five years if an inmate or staff employee takes part in sexual intercourse with an inmate. In a move to make some dent in the overpopulation, Green is sponsoring SB254 that cuts an inmate sentence for completing regional jail educational and rehabilitation programs. One day of “good time” would be applied for finishing these programs — domestic violence, parenting, substance abuse, life skills and anger management, or any special rehab or educational programs designed by the executive director. A maximum reduction of five days would be allowed under the legislation. Another measure would let the corrections commission deposit certain interest or other monies into an inmate benefit fund to be applied to restitution of any negative balance on the convict’s account. One bill that failed to exit the committee for this legislative session was intended to block the use of cell phones inside prisons, even by visitors. Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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