The Governor on behalf of this state is authorized to execute a compact, in substantially the following form, with any one (1) or more of the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas, and the General Assembly hereby signifies in advance its approval and ratification of the compact:
SOUTH CENTRAL INTERSTATE CORRECTIONS COMPACT
Article I PurposeThe party states find that special problems involved in the incarceration of women prisoners make it impracticable for each state to provide facilities and programs of sufficiently high quality for the confinement, treatment, and rehabilitation of women prisoners in accordance with recognized penological standards. Accordingly, it is the policy of each of the party states to provide such programs and facilities on a basis of co-operation with one another thereby making possible the operation and maintenance of correctional institutions for women on an efficient basis that will promote the best interest of women prisoners and of society as a whole. To these ends, the purpose of this Compact is to provide adequate care and rehabilitation of women prisoners, in the South Central States through effective interstate co-operation.
Article II Definitions(A) As used in this Compact, the term “sending state” shall mean a state party to this Compact in which conviction was had.
(B) As used in this Compact, the term “receiving state” shall mean a state party to this Compact to which a prisoner is sent for incarceration other than the state in which conviction was had.
(C) A “woman prisoner” as used herein is any female prisoner who has been convicted of a criminal offense and is subject to commitment under the laws of a sending state.
There is hereby created the South Central Interstate Corrections Board, an agency of the states party to this Compact, with the powers and duties conferred upon it by this Compact. The Board shall be composed of two members from each party state to be designated and to serve as provided by the law of such state. At least one member from each party state shall be an officer of an administrative agency of such state dealing with penal or correctional institutions.
Article IV Board Powers and DutiesThe Board shall have power to:
(1) Study interstate problems in the corrections fields and recommend such measures as it may deem necessary for administrative or legislative action by the party states.
(2) Study and recommend groupings of the party states with respect to the use of each Compact Institution as defined herein so as to facilitate the most efficient service of the area, use of the institution, and care and rehabilitation of the prisoners.
(3) Receive from time to time and review reports from each receiving state concerning costs, methods, practices, rehabilitation programs, and returns from programs of prisoner employment, if any, in the Compact Institutions and make general recommendations as to the administration of the interstate program in such institutions.
(4) Receive copies of all contracts between or among party states entered into pursuant to this Compact and make general recommendations as to procedures, practices, and contract provisions.
(5) Receive and expend for the purposes of this Compact any funds that a party state may from time to time appropriate and make such accounting therefor as the party state may require.
(i) Review party states' individual emergency plans and develop a plan which will determine the mechanism for the interstate management and provision of assistance concerning any potential emergency.
(ii) Develop interstate procedures to fill any identified gaps and to resolve any identified inconsistencies or overlaps in existing or developed plans.
(iii) Assist in warning communities adjacent to or crossing the state boundaries.
(iv) Protect and assure uninterrupted delivery of services, medicines, water, food, energy and fuel, search and rescue, and critical lifeline equipment, services, and resources, both human and material.
(v) Inventory and set procedures for the interstate loan and delivery of human and material resources, together with procedures for reimbursement or forgiveness.
(vi) Provide, to the extent authorized by law, for temporary suspension of any statutes or ordinances that restrict the implementation of the above responsibilities.
The Board shall meet at least once each year and shall elect annually from among its members a chairman, vice-chairman, and secretary. The Board shall adopt rules and regulations for the conduct of its business. The expenses of each Board member and of such other persons who may attend meetings of the Board or its panels or committees on behalf of a state shall be met by that state in accordance with its law.
Article VI Contracts and Reports(A) The appropriate administrative agencies of the party states may enter into contracts consistent with and embodying the standards contained in this Compact covering in specific terms the charge or charges of the receiving state for prisoner care and the obligations of the sending and receiving states for delivery and retaking of prisoners and for services which shall be rendered, for duration of contract, and for all other necessary matters.
(B) The representatives on the Board of any group of states which have entered into arrangements with respect to a Compact Institution may constitute a panel of the Board which shall have the power to make recommendations regarding that institution.
(C) An appropriate administrative officer in each state within which a Compact Institution is located shall make annual reports to the Board as to the loads, costs, methods, practices, rehabilitation programs, and returns from programs of prisoner employment, if any, in such Compact Institution including such recommendations as to these matters and as to the interstate program as such administrator may deem advisable.
(D) Copies of all contracts entered into under this article shall be filed with the Board in such manner as it may prescribe.
The Board shall report annually to the Governors and legislatures of the party states concerning all activities under this Compact and such recommendations for action by the party states as the Board shall deem necessary.
Article VIII Rights and Duties of Sending and Receiving States(A) Whenever the duly constituted judicial or administrative authorities in a state party to the Compact and which has entered a contract under Article VI, shall decide that incarceration of a woman prisoner within the territory of another party state is necessary in order to provide adequate quarters and care or desirable in order to provide the best available program of rehabilitation said officials may direct that the incarceration be within a prison or other correctional institution within the territory of said other party state, such receiving state to act in that regard solely as agent for the sending state.
(B) Upon the request of the South Central Interstate Corrections Board established by Article III of this Compact, any state which adopts this Compact may designate a correctional institution for women within said state as a “Compact Institution” wherein other party states may incarcerate women prisoners whenever contracts therefor shall be made pursuant to Article VI of this Compact. The appropriate administrative and legislative officials of any state party to this Compact shall have access to any Compact Institution at all reasonable times for the purpose of inspecting the facilities thereof and visiting such of its prisoners as may be confined in the institution.
(C) Persons confined in a Compact Institution pursuant to the terms of this Compact shall at all times be subject to the jurisdiction of the sending state and may at any time be removed from said Compact Institution for transfer to a prison or other correctional institution within the sending state, for transfer to another Compact Institution, for release on probation or parole, for discharge, or for any other purpose permitted by the laws of the sending state, provided that the sending state shall continue to be obligated to such payments as may be provided pursuant to the terms of any contracts entered into under the provisions of Article VI.
(D) Each receiving state shall provide regular reports to each sending state on the inmates of that sending state in the Compact Institution including a conduct record of each inmate and certify said record to the official designated by the sending state, in order that each inmate may have the benefit of her record in determining and altering the disposition of said inmate in accordance with the law which may obtain in the sending state and in order that the same may be a source of information for the sending state.
(E) All persons who may be confined in a Compact Institution pursuant to the provisions of this Compact shall be treated in a reasonable and humane manner. The fact of incarceration in a receiving state shall not deprive any person so incarcerated of any legal rights which said person would have had if incarcerated in an appropriate institution of the sending state.
(F) Any hearing or hearings to which a prisoner incarcerated pursuant to this Compact may be entitled by the laws of the sending state may be had before the appropriate authorities of the sending state or of the receiving state if authorized by the sending state. The receiving state shall provide adequate facilities for such hearings as may be conducted by the appropriate officials of a sending state. In the event that such hearing or hearings are had before officials of the receiving state, the governing law shall be that of the sending state and a record of the hearing or hearings as prescribed by the sending state shall be made. Said record together with any recommendations of the hearing officials shall be transmitted forthwith to the official or officials before whom the hearing would have been had if it had taken place in the sending state. In any and all proceedings had pursuant to the provisions of this subdivision, the officials of the receiving state shall act solely as agents of the sending state and no final determination shall be made in any matter except by the appropriate officials of the sending state. Costs of records made pursuant to this subdivision shall be borne by the sending state.
(G) Any person incarcerated under the terms of this Compact shall be released within the territory of the sending state unless the prisoner and the sending and receiving states shall agree upon release in some other place. The sending state shall bear the cost of such return to its territory.
This Compact shall enter into force and become effective and binding upon the states so acting when it has been enacted by any two of the States of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas, and, thereafter, shall enter into force and become effective and binding as to any other of said states upon similar action by such other state.
Article X WithdrawalThis Compact shall continue in force and remain binding upon a party state until the legislature or Governor of such state, as its laws shall provide, takes action to withdraw therefrom. Such action shall not be effective until two years after the notice thereof has been sent by the Governor of the state desiring to withdraw to the Governors of all the other states then party to the Compact. Such withdrawal shall not relieve the withdrawing state from its obligations assumed hereunder prior to the effective date of withdrawal. Before the effective date of withdrawal a withdrawing state shall remove to its territory at its own expense such prisoners as it may have incarcerated pursuant to the provisions of this Compact.
Article XI SeverabilityThe provisions of this Compact shall be severable and if any phrase, clause, sentence, or provision of this Compact is declared to be unconstitutional or the applicability thereof to any state, agency, person, or circumstance is held invalid, the constitutionality of this Compact and the applicability thereof to any other state, agency, person, or circumstance shall not be affected thereby. It is intended that the provisions of this Compact be reasonable and liberally construed.