Local and Regional Jails, State Board of; membership, powers and duties, effective clause.

Board of Local and Regional Jails; powers and duties. Restores the authority of the State Board of Local and Regional Jails (the Board) to (i) ensure the development of long-range policies, programs, and plans for corrections services provided at the state and local levels; (ii) review and comment on all budgets and requests for appropriations for the Department of Corrections (the Department) prior to submission to the Governor and on all applications for federal funds; and (iii) monitor the activities of the Department and its effectiveness in implementing the standards and goals of the Board. Chapter 375 of the Acts of Assembly of 2011 repealed the Board's authority to perform these functions. The bill also provides to the Board the power and duty to (a) develop and establish operational and fiscal standards governing the operation of state correctional facilities; (b) make, adopt, and promulgate such rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry out the laws of the Commonwealth pertaining to state correctional facilities; (c) 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 state correctional facility; (d) establish minimum standards for health care services, including medical, dental, pharmaceutical, and behavioral health services, in state correctional facilities and procedures for enforcing such minimum standards; (e) review and approve the content and frequency of correctional officer training programs provided by the Department; and (f) collect and review information on disciplinary practices and trends in state, local, regional, and community correctional facilities and, as appropriate, adopt rules and regulations to improve disciplinary practices. The bill also increases from nine to 14 the number of members to be appointed to the Board and modifies the eligibility requirements for such members. The bill allows, despite such modifications to Board membership eligibility requirements, current members of the Board to continue serving for the remainder of the members' current, unexpired term. The provisions of the bill are contingent on funding in a general appropriation act.