Allowing county and municipal prisoners to be imprisoned in a bordering county within or outside of the state. (FE)

Current law also allows DOC to enter into contracts with other states to send prisoners who are in DOC custody to the other states. Under current law, any contract allowing for the transfer of a prisoner to another state must contain certain provisions, including a termination date, provisions regarding the treatment, care, and transfer of prisoners, prisoner participation in employment programs, reporting requirements, and retention of jurisdiction in this state over prisoners transferred.

Under this bill, a county in this state may enter into an agreement with a receiving county outside of the state to pay the receiving county to detain or imprison county prisoners before, during, and after trial if the other county borders the county in which the prisoner would otherwise be detained or imprisoned, and the monthly expenses charged to the county in this state by the receiving county to detain or imprison the prisoner are at least 25 percent less than the monthly expenses charged by the county in this state. The bill sets forth certain provisions that any contract allowing a county to transfer a county prisoner to another state, which generally mirror the requirements for a contract allowing the transfer of a state prisoner to another state. Under the bill, any contract between a county in this state and a receiving county in another state must include a requirement that the Department of Corrections or its equivalent agency or department in the receiving state approve the jail or facility in the receiving county to receive prisoners from the county in this state.

Municipalities Currently, if a person fails to pay a monetary judgment ordered by a municipal court, the court may suspend the person's motor vehicle operating privilege for up to two years under certain conditions, order the assignment of up to 25 percent of the person's earnings or other money due to the person to pay the judgment, order that the person be imprisoned for up to 90 days, with each day resulting in a credit of at least $50 of the unpaid judgment, or a combination of these remedies.

If the court orders that the person be imprisoned, the person is required to be committed to a jail or house of correction in the county in which the cause of action arose. Under this bill, if the court orders that the person be imprisoned, the person may be committed to a jail in a different county within or outside of the state if all of the following requirements are met:

1. The other county borders the county in which the cause of action arose.

2. The monthly expenses charged to the municipality by the other county to imprison the defendant are at least 25 percent less than the monthly expenses charged by the county in which the cause of action arose.

3. The other county agrees to having the defendant committed to a jail in that county.