PRINTER'S NO. 559
No. 530 Session of 1997
INTRODUCED BY O'PAKE, MELLOW, STAPLETON AND TOMLINSON,
FEBRUARY 25, 1997
REFERRED TO JUDICIARY, FEBRUARY 25, 1997
AN ACT
1 Amending the act of August 13, 1963 (P.L.774, No.390), entitled
2 "An act authorizing courts to permit certain prisoners to
3 leave jail during reasonable and necessary hours for
4 occupational, scholastic or medical purposes; conferring
5 powers and imposing duties upon courts, county commissioners
6 and sheriffs and other persons in charge of a jail or
7 workhouse," further providing for work release for prisoners.
8 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
9 hereby enacts as follows:
10 Section 1. Section 1 of the act of August 13, 1963 (P.L.774,
11 No.390), referred to as the County Jail Prisoner Temporary
12 Release Law, amended July 9, 1990 (P.L.335, No.75), is amended
13 to read:
14 Section 1. Whenever any person has been sentenced to undergo
15 imprisonment in a county jail or workhouse, hereafter referred
16 to as a jail, for a term of less than five years the court, at
17 the time of sentence or at any time thereafter upon application
18 made therefor, may by order direct the sheriff, prison keeper,
19 jail keeper, warden or other administrative head of a jail to
20 permit the prisoner, after the prisoner has served at least
1 twenty-five percent of the minimum sentence,to leave the jail
2 during necessary and reasonable hours for the purpose of working
3 at his employment, conducting his own business or other self-
4 employed occupation, including housekeeping and attending to the
5 needs of family, seeking employment, attendance at an
6 educational institution, securing medical treatment or such
7 other lawful purposes as the court shall consider necessary and
8 appropriate, except that the prisoner shall not work more than
9 five days a week, eight hours a day or eighty hours in a two-
10 week period. The order of court may be rescinded or modified at
11 any time with or without notice to the prisoner.
12 Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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