Title 31, Prisons and Prisoners

When a county jail or building contiguous to it is on fire and there is reason to apprehend that the prisoners may be injured or endangered, the sheriff shall remove them to a safe and convenient place and there confine them as long as necessary.

A. The sheriff shall receive all persons who are committed to jail by competent authority and provide them with necessary food, clothing and bedding, the cost of which shall be a county charge or, if a county jail district has been established, a charge of the district, except as…

A. The sheriff may receive and keep in the county jail any prisoner committed thereto by process or order issued under the authority of the United States until the prisoner is discharged according to law as if he had been committed under process issued under the authority of the …

A prisoner committed to the county jail for trial or for examination, or upon conviction for a public offense, shall be actually confined in the jail until he is legally discharged. If the prisoner is permitted to go at large, except by lawful order or process, or pursuant to the…

A. Male and female prisoners shall not be kept or placed in the same room. B. A person under the age of eighteen years shall not be confined in the same section of any jail or prison in which adult prisoners are confined.

When a paper in a judicial proceeding is directed to a prisoner in the custody of a sheriff and is served upon the sheriff, he shall forthwith deliver it to the prisoner with a notation thereon of the time of service. If the sheriff neglects to do so he is liable to the prisoner …

When a person confined in the county jail upon arrest for or conviction of a misdemeanor manifests symptoms of a mental disorder, the sheriff shall notify a licensed physician who shall examine the person. If in the judgment of a licensed physician the person is suffering from a …

A public officer who with criminal negligence is guilty of inhumanity or oppression toward a prisoner under his care or in his custody is guilty of a class 2 misdemeanor.

A person not authorized by law who, without permission of the officer in charge of a jail, communicates with a person imprisoned or detained therein, or who takes any letter, writing, literature or reading matter to or from a person imprisoned or detained therein, is guilty of a …

A. A person not authorized by law who knowingly takes into a jail or the grounds belonging to the jail any marijuana, narcotic drug or dangerous drug, or intoxicating liquor of any kind, or firearms, weapons or explosives of any kind is guilty of a class 5 felony. B. For the purp…

A person who intentionally and without lawful authority breaks, pulls down or otherwise destroys or injures a public jail or other place of confinement is guilty of a class 5 felony.

A. On approval of the county board of supervisors, the sheriff may operate an inmate industry program and for that purpose may employ personnel, purchase equipment and incur other necessary expenses for the operation and management of the program, making payment therefor through …

Prior to or at the same time a prisoner is transferred from a county jail facility to a state department of corrections facility by a county, a copy of the prisoner's county jail medical record file, including the prisoner's mental health file, or a standardized medical record su…

A. If a person is sentenced to serve a certain number of days in a county jail, the court imposing the sentence may order, in addition to any other sentence authorized by law, that the defendant be kept at hard labor during the term of the sentence, or for any part of such senten…

A. The sheriff may, with the consent of the board of supervisors, require prisoners under his charge who are capable of hard labor to be employed on the public streets, highways or other public works where they will not compete with free labor in the county. B. If a person is sen…

The county engineer shall receive and work prisoners sentenced to hard labor who are authorized by the board of supervisors to be employed. The engineer may exercise the powers of a constable to transport, supervise and control available numbers of prisoners released to him for w…

A. A prisoner in a city, town or county jail, while working on the public streets, highways or other public works as a trusty outside the jail without requiring armed guards, or while holding a position of trust either within or without the jail, shall be allowed double time whil…

A. A prisoner sentenced to pay a fine shall be allowed not to exceed fifty dollars per day credited to the fine for each day he is employed at hard labor. B. A person committed for nonpayment of a fine shall be given credit toward payment for each day of imprisonment at the rate …

Within five days after the end of each week, the officer having custody of prisoners who have been sentenced to pay a fine and ordered imprisoned until the fine is paid shall give notice to the committing court of all discharges during the week ending at midnight of the preceding…

A. Subject to the approval of the county board of supervisors or the board of directors of a county jail district, the sheriff may charge each inmate who is committed to jail by competent authority a reasonable fee or copayment of not more than ten dollars for each inmate initiat…

A. The inmate health services fund is established in each county treasury consisting of monies received pursuant to section 31-161. The sheriff shall administer the fund. B. The board of supervisors shall approve the use of fund monies to administer or provide health services to …

A. If a county provides health services to an inmate or a juvenile detainee, the county has the right of subrogation against the individual's right of recovery from any source to the extent of the costs of services provided. B. The county is entitled to a lien for the charges for…

A. The board of supervisors of two or more counties or the board of directors of two or more county jail districts may enter into contracts or agreements pursuant to section 11-952.01 to jointly purchase insurance or to pool retention of their risks for inmate health care and to …

If an inmate in a county jail or a person who, but for the circumstances, would otherwise be treated in the county jail requires health care services that the county jail cannot provide, the county shall pay claims approved by the county from a facility or provider that provides …

As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires: 1. "Department" means the state department of corrections. 2. "Director" means the director of the department.

A. The director shall hold in custody all persons who are sentenced to the department under the law and shall hold such persons for the term directed by the court, subject to law. B. In addition to the medical and health services to be provided pursuant to subsection D of this se…

No person shall be appointed to any office or be employed by the department on behalf of the state who: 1. Is a contractor for the department, except pursuant to section 31-204. 2. Is interested, directly or indirectly, in any business carried on in connection with the department…

A. An officer or employee shall not have any monetary interest in any contract or purchase made by anyone for or on behalf of the department, or receive, directly or indirectly, compensation for services unless approved by the director. B. An officer or employee of the department…

A. The prison chaplains shall devote as much of their time as the condition and employment of the prisoners reasonably justifies in giving the prisoners moral and religious instruction. The chaplains shall at all times, under the authority of the director, have access to the pris…

The department of administration shall draw a warrant for claims approved and allowed by the director under the provisions of this chapter, and the warrants shall be paid from the appropriation made to the department.

A. The state department of corrections shall maintain a master record file on each person who is committed to the department that contains the following: 1. All information from the committing court. 2. The reports of the reception-diagnostic centers. 3. Evaluation and assignment…

A. The department shall establish programs of research, statistics and planning, including the study of its own performance concerning the treatment of adult offenders. B. The department may conduct and supervise research into the causes of detention and treatment of crime and di…

A correctional officer as defined in section 41-1661 may use all reasonable and necessary means including deadly force to prevent the attempt of a prisoner sentenced to the custody of the state department of corrections to: 1. Escape from custody or from a correctional facility. …

Prior to or at the same time a prisoner is transferred from a state department of corrections facility by the department to a county jail facility, a copy of the prisoner's state department of corrections medical record file, including the prisoner's mental health file, or a stan…

A. A prisoner may authorize the department to release the prisoner's medical record to a member of the prisoner's immediate family or to a designated individual. The authorization must be in writing on a form prescribed by the department and include a release that complies with t…

When it is necessary that a person imprisoned by the department be brought before any court, or that a person imprisoned in a county jail be brought before a court in another county, an order may be made for that purpose by the court and executed by the sheriff of the county wher…

A. If a prisoner confined in any facility operated by the state department of corrections displays symptoms of mental disorder to such a degree that transfer to the state hospital or a licensed behavioral health or mental health inpatient treatment facility operated by the state …

A. If the written report made pursuant to section 31-226, subsection A indicates reasonable cause to believe that, as a result of mental disorder, the prisoner is a danger to self or others and that without immediate treatment in a mental health inpatient treatment facility or th…

A. If a person is arrested within this state for any crime committed in or adjacent and related to a correctional facility under the jurisdiction of the state department of corrections or committed while escaped from a correctional facility under the jurisdiction of the departmen…

A. When a prisoner is released conditionally on parole, community supervision or probation if the court waived community supervision pursuant to section 13-603 or is discharged from a facility of the state department of corrections there shall be returned to the prisoner everythi…

A. The director shall establish and administer a functional literacy program in each correctional institution in this state. B. On commitment to the department, each inmate shall be given an educational evaluation, including a standardized assessment test in English or Spanish as…

A. If an inmate is determined to be functionally literate pursuant to section 31-229, has not received a high school diploma and is responsible for the support of dependent children who are receiving assistance pursuant to title 46, chapter 2, article 5, the inmate shall particip…

A. Except as provided in section 41-1604.07, subsection F, if an inmate fails to achieve functional literacy at an eighth grade literacy level before the inmate becomes eligible for release pursuant to section 41-1604.07, the inmate is not eligible to begin the inmate's term of c…

A. The director shall establish a prisoner spendable account for each prisoner. All monies that are received by a prisoner and that are not required to be deposited in another account shall be deposited in the prisoner's spendable account. B. The director shall adopt rules for th…

A. A person who is not authorized by law and who without legal or official permission communicates with a prisoner who is within the custody and control of the department is guilty of a class 2 misdemeanor. B. For the purposes of this section, all prisoners who are detained withi…

A. To the greatest extent possible and after accounting for security and capacity factors, the department shall place a prisoner who is a parent of a minor child in a prison facility that is located within two hundred fifty miles of the prisoner's permanent address on record. B. …