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2024 SESSION

24102163D
HOUSE BILL NO. 103
Offered January 10, 2024
Prefiled December 31, 2023
A BILL to amend and reenact § 53.1-5 of the Code of Virginia, relating to State Board of Local and Regional Jails; powers and duties.
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Patron-- Hope
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Referred to Committee on Public Safety
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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 53.1-5 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 53.1-5. Powers and duties of Board.

The Board shall have the following powers and duties:

1. To develop and establish operational and fiscal standards governing the operation of local, regional, and community correctional facilities;

2. To advise the Governor and Director on matters relating to corrections;

3. To make, adopt, and promulgate such rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this title and other laws of the Commonwealth pertaining to local, regional, and community correctional facilities. The Board shall adhere to procedures of the Administrative Process Act (§ 2.2-4000 et seq.) when promulgating minimum standards and adopting any policy or procedure related to the enforcement of any minimum standards applicable to local, regional, and community correctional facilities;

4. To ensure the development of programs to educate citizens and elicit public support for the activities of the Department;

5. To develop and implement policies and procedures for the review of the death of any inmate that the Board determines warrants review that occurs in any local, regional, or community correctional facility. Such policies and procedures shall incorporate the Board's authority under § 53.1-6 to ensure the production of evidence necessary to conduct a thorough review of any such death;

6. To establish minimum standards for health care services, including medical, dental, pharmaceutical, and behavioral health services, in local, regional, and community correctional facilities and procedures for enforcing such minimum standards, with the advice of and guidance from the Commissioner of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and State Health Commissioner or their designees. Such minimum standards shall require that each local, regional, and community correctional facility submit a standardized quarterly continuous quality improvement report documenting the delivery of health care services, along with any improvements made to those services, to the Board. The Board shall make such reports available to the public on its website. The Board may determine that any local, regional, or community correctional facility that is accredited by the American Correctional Association or National Commission on Correctional Health Care meets such minimum standards solely on the basis of such facility's accreditation status; however, without exception, the requirement that each local, regional, and community correctional facility submit a standardized quarterly continuous quality improvement report to the Board shall be a mandatory minimum standard. In enforcing any adopted health care or behavioral health care standards, the Board shall not find the facility or its non-health care staff in violation of any such standards due to the actions or inactions of licensed medical or mental health professionals, whether employed or contracted by the facility, as long as the local, regional, or community correctional facility has met the applicable standards to have such care available. In such instances, the Board may report any alleged violations of standards or care to the appropriate state health professions licensing board; and

7. To report annually on or before December 1 to the General Assembly and the Governor on the results of the inspections and audits of local, regional, or community correctional facilities conducted pursuant to § 53.1-68 and the reviews of the deaths of inmates that occur in any local, regional, or community correctional facility conducted pursuant to § 53.1-69.1. The report shall include (i) a summary of the results of such inspections, audits, and reviews, including any trends identified by such inspections, audits, and reviews and the frequency of violations of each standard established for local, regional, or community correctional facilities, and (ii) any recommendations for changes to the standards established for local, regional, or community correctional facilities or the policies and procedures for conducting reviews of the death of inmates to improve the operations, safety, and security of local, regional, or community correctional facilities.