2020 BILLS PASSED
​
SB 622 State Board of Corrections; powers and duties (2020)
Sponsored by Senator Creigh Deeds [D]
04/06/2020 Approved by Governor-Chapter 759 (effective 7/1/20)
Authorizes the Director of the Department of Corrections to develop and establish operating procedures to maintain prisoners residing in state correctional facilities and under the supervision of Department of Corrections probation and parole, including establishing regulations for human research, prescribing rules to govern home/electronic incarceration programs, and prescribing rules regarding the wages paid to persons participating in programs under the supervision of probation and parole. The bill also renames the State Board of Corrections as the State Board of Local and Regional Jails (the Board); authorizes the Board to appoint and employ an executive director; and requires the Board to report annually to the General Assembly and the Governor on the results of inspections and audits of local, regional, or community correctional facilities and the reviews of the deaths of inmates that occur in any local, regional, or community correctional facility. Read bill text here.
2020 BILLS CONTINUED TO 2021
HB 1543 Minimum wage and workers' compensation; inmates as employees (2020)
Sponsored by Delegate Lee Carter (D)
02/06/2020 Continued to 2021 in Labor and Commerce by voice vote
​
Requires the entity that operates the correctional facility at which an inmate performs labor to be paid therefor at a rate not less than the Commonwealth's minimum wage. The measure also provides that, for purposes of the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act, an inmate is an employee of the entity operating the correctional facility where the inmate participates in any work program during his incarceration.
​
2019 BILLS
HB1761 State correctional facilities; procurement by public bodies of articles produced or manufactured (2019)
Update: 2/5/2019 BILL FAILED.
Introduced By Del. Lee Carter (D-Manassas)
State correctional facilities; prohibition on procurement by public bodies of articles produced or manufactured and services provided by persons confined in state correctional facilities. Prohibits articles produced or manufactured and services provided by persons confined in state correctional facilities from being purchased by (i) any department, institution, or agency of the Commonwealth that is supported in whole or in part with funds from the state treasury or (ii) any county, district of any county, city, or town or by any nonprofit organization, including volunteer emergency medical services agencies, fire departments, sheltered workshops, and community service organizations. Under current law, state departments, institutions, and agencies that are supported in whole or in part with funds from the state treasury are required to purchase such articles and services, and counties, districts of any county, cities, and towns, as well as any nonprofit organizations, are permitted to purchase such articles and services. The bill provides that such articles and services may be disposed of by the Director of the Department of Corrections only by sale or exchange on the open market. The bill contains technical amendments.
Make public comments here.