§ 24-3-30 — Places of confinement, designation and exceptions; notification to Department when closing of local detention facility.

(A) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a person convicted of an offense against the State must be in the custody of the Department of Corrections, and the department shall designate the place of confinement where the sentence must be served. The department may designate as a place of confinement an available, a suitable, and an appropriate institution or facility including, but not limited to, a regional, county, or municipal jail or prison camp, whether maintained by the Department of Corrections, or by some other entity. If the facility is not maintained by the department, the consent of the sheriff of the county or municipal chief administrative officer, or the equivalent, where the facility is located must be obtained first. If imprisonment for three months or less is ordered by the court as the punishment, all persons so convicted must be placed in the custody, supervision, and control of the appropriate officials of the county in which the sentence was pronounced, if the county has facilities suitable for confinement. A county or municipality, through mutual agreement or contract, may arrange with another county or municipality or a local regional correctional facility for the detention of its prisoners. The Department of Corrections must be notified by the governing body concerned not less than six months before the closing of a local detention facility which would result in the transfer of those state prisoners confined in the local facility to facilities of the department. (B) The department shall consider proximity to the home of a person convicted of an offense against the State in designating the place of his confinement if this placement does not jeopardize security as determined by the department. Proximity to a convicted person's home must not have precedence over departmental criteria for institutional assignment. (C) Each county or municipal administrator, or the equivalent, having charge of any local detention facilities, upon the department's designating the local facilities as the place of confinement for a prisoner, may use the prisoner assigned to them for the purpose of working the roads of the entity or for other public work. A prisoner assigned to the county must be under the custody and control of the administrator or the equivalent during the period to be specified by the director at the time of the prisoner's assignment, but the assignment must be terminated at any time the director determines that the place of confinement is unsuitable or inappropriate, or that the prisoner is employed on other than public works. If, upon termination of the assignment, the prisoner is not returned, habeas corpus lies. At the expiration or termination of a contract with a nongovernmental agency, all prisoners must be returned to the department or to the legally responsible entity of local government. If a prisoner is not returned by a nongovernmental entity when directed, then habeas corpus lies.

Legislative History

HISTORY: 1962 Code SECTION 55-321.1:1; 1974 (58) 2608; 1975 (59) 333; 1977 Act No. 185 SECTION 4; 1981 Act No. 181 SECTION 1; 1993 Act No. 181, SECTION 392; 1995 Act No. 7, Part II, SECTION 53; 1999 Act No. 68, SECTION 1; 2001 Act No. 50, SECTION 4; 2010 Act No. 237, SECTION 3, eff June 11, 2010. Effect of Amendment The 2010 amendment, in the second sentence substituted "prison camp" for "work camp", and rewrote the third sentence relating to the consent of the sheriff.