53.1-131.1 - Provision for sentencing of person to nonconsecutive days in jail; payment to defray costs; penalty.

§ 53.1-131.1. Provision for sentencing of person to nonconsecutive days injail; payment to defray costs; penalty.

Any court having jurisdiction for the trial of a person charged with amisdemeanor or traffic offense or charged with any offense under Chapter 5 (§20-61 et seq.) of Title 20 may, if the defendant is convicted and sentencedto confinement in jail, impose the time to be served on weekends ornonconsecutive days to permit the convicted defendant to retain gainfulemployment. A person sentenced pursuant to this section shall pay an amountto defray the cost of his keep, which amount shall be the actual cost ofincarceration but shall not exceed that amount charged to the CompensationBoard for purposes of reimbursement as provided in the general appropriationact. Such amount shall be collected by the sheriff, if he is responsible foroperating a jail, or by the regional jail superintendent, and remitted by thesheriff to the treasurer of the appropriate county or city, or by theregional jail superintendent to the regional jail board or authority, solelyfor the purposes of defraying the costs of such weekend or nonconsecutiveincarceration. The funds collected pursuant to this section shall not be usedfor purposes other than those provided for in this section. The assessmentprovided for herein shall be in addition to any other fees prescribed by law.If the defendant willfully fails to report at times specified by the court,the sentence imposed pursuant to this section shall be revoked and a straightjail sentence imposed.

If an offender who has been sentenced to nonconsecutive days by the court isin violation of the rules of the jail pursuant to § 53.1-117, the sheriff orjail administrator may require the offender to serve out a portion or theentirety of the remainder of his sentence in consecutive days. Upon revokingthe offender's ability to serve his sentence on nonconsecutive days, thesheriff or jail administrator shall notify in writing the court thatsentenced the offender and indicate the specific violations that led to thedecision.

The time served by a person sentenced for violation of state law in a localjail, regional jail, or local jail farm pursuant to this section shall beincluded in the count of prisoner days reported by the Department for thepurpose of apportioning state funds to local correctional facilities foroperating costs in accordance with § 53.1-84.

(1983, c. 172; 1984, c. 490; 1994, c. 901; 1999, c. 9; 2002, cc. 805, 831;2003, c. 1039; 2006, c. 792.)