House Bill 640

AN ACT TO REQUIRE EACH COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT THAT HAS AN AFFILIATED DISTRICT WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL AND EACH WORK FORCE DEVELOPMENT CENTER TO PROVIDE TRAINING WITH ITS MOBILE TRAINING UNITS AT REGIONAL CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES FOR ELIGIBLE NONVIOLENT INMATES; TO AMEND SECTIONS 37-153-9 AND 37-153-11, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO CONFORM TO THE PRECEDING SECTION; TO BRING FORWARD SECTION 47-5-931, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, FOR PURPOSES OF POSSIBLE AMENDMENT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Each community college district that has an affiliated District Workforce Development Council and each workforce development center shall coordinate efforts to utilize the community college mobile training units at each regional correctional facility in the state. The mobile training units, which include, but are not limited to welding, shall be provided to a correctional facility along with the necessary instructors for at least ninety (90) days at each regional correctional facility for the training of nonviolent offenders who are housed at a regional correctional facility.

SECTION 2. Section 37-153-9, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

37-153-9. (1) In accordance with the federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998, there shall be established, for each of the four (4) state workforce areas prescribed in Section 37-153-3 (2)(c), a local workforce investment board to set policy for the portion of the state workforce investment system within the local area and carry out the provisions of the Workforce Investment Act.

(2) Each community college district shall have an affiliated District Workforce Development Council. The district council shall be composed of a diverse group of fifteen (15) persons appointed by the board of trustees of the affiliated public community or junior college. The members of each district council shall be selected from persons recommended by the chambers of commerce, employee groups, industrial foundations, community organizations and local governments located in the community college district of the affiliated community college with one (1) appointee being involved in basic literacy training. However, at least eight (8) members of each district council shall be chief executive officers, plant managers that are representatives of employers in that district or service sector executives. The District Workforce Development Council affiliated with each respective community or junior college shall advise the president of the community or junior college on the operation of its workforce development center/one-stop center.

The Workforce Development Council shall have the following advisory duties:

(a) To develop an integrated and coordinated district workforce investment strategic plan that:

(i) Identifies workforce investment needs through job and employee assessments of local business and industry;

(ii) Sets short-term and long-term goals for industry-specific training and upgrading and for general development of the workforce; and

(iii) Provides for coordination of all training programs, including ABE/High School Equivalency Diploma, Skills Enhancement and Industrial Services, and shall work collaboratively with the State Literacy Resource Center;

(b) To coordinate and integrate delivery of training as provided by the workforce development plan;

(d) To encourage continuous improvement through evaluation and assessment; * * * ~~and~~

(e) To oversee development of an extensive marketing plan to the employer community * * *.; and

(f) To coordinate and integrate delivery of training of certain nonviolent offenders as provided under Section 1 of this act.

SECTION 3. Section 37-153-11, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

37-153-11. (1) There are created workforce development centers to provide assessment, training and placement services to individuals needing retraining, training and upgrading for small business and local industry. Each workforce development center shall be affiliated with a separate public community or junior college district and shall coordinate with the Office of Workforce Development.

(2) Each workforce development center shall be staffed and organized locally by the affiliated community college. The workforce development center shall serve as staff to the affiliated district council.

(3) Each workforce development center, working in concert with its affiliated district council, shall offer and arrange services to accomplish the purposes of this article, including, but not limited to, the following:

(a) For individuals needing training and retraining:

(i) Recruiting, assessing, counseling and referring to training or jobs;

(ii) Preemployment training for those with no experience in the private enterprise system;

(iii) Basic literacy skills training and high school equivalency education;

(iv) Vocational and technical training, full-time or part-time; and

(v) Short-term skills training for educationally and economically disadvantaged adults in cooperation with federally established employment and training programs;

(b) For specific small businesses, industries or firms within the district:

(i) Job analysis, testing and curriculum development;

(ii) Development of specific long-range training plans;

(iii) Industry or firm-related preemployment training;

(iv) Workplace basic skills and literacy training;

(v) Customized skills training;

(vi) Assistance in developing the capacity for total quality management training;

(vii) Technology transfer information and referral services to business of local applications of new research in cooperation with the University Research Center, the state's universities and other laboratories; and

(viii) Development of business plans;

(c) For public schools within the district technical assistance to secondary schools in curriculum coordination, development of tech prep programs, instructional development and resource coordination; * * * ~~and~~

(d) For economic development, a local forum and resource center for all local industrial development groups to meet and promote regional economic development * * *.; and

(e) Training of nonviolent offenders in regional correctional facilities as prescribed under Section 1 of this act.

(4) Each workforce development center shall compile and make accessible to the Office of Workforce Development and Mississippi State Workforce Investment Board necessary information for use in evaluating outcomes of its efforts and in improving the quality of programs at each community college, and shall include information on literacy initiatives. Each workforce development center shall, through an interagency management information system, maintain records on new small businesses, placement, length of time on the job after placement and wage rates of those placed in a form containing such information as established by the state council.

(5) The Mississippi Community College Board is authorized to designate one or more workforce development centers at the request of affiliated community or junior colleges to provide skills training to individuals to enhance their ability to be employed in the motion picture industry in this state.

SECTION 4. Section 47-5-931, Mississippi Code of 1972, is brought forward as follows:

47-5-931. (1) The Department of Corrections, in its discretion, may contract with the board of supervisors of one or more counties or with a regional facility operated by one or more counties, to provide for housing, care and control of offenders who are in the custody of the State of Mississippi. Any facility owned or leased by a county or counties for this purpose shall be designed, constructed, operated and maintained in accordance with American Correctional Association standards, and shall comply with all constitutional standards of the United States and the State of Mississippi, and with all court orders that may now or hereinafter be applicable to the facility. If the Department of Corrections contracts with more than one (1) county to house state offenders in county correctional facilities, excluding a regional facility, then the first of such facilities shall be constructed in Sharkey County and the second of such facilities shall be constructed in Jefferson County.

(2) The Department of Corrections shall contract with the board of supervisors of the following counties to house state inmates in regional facilities: (a) Marion and Walthall Counties; (b) Carroll and Montgomery Counties; (c) Stone and Pearl River Counties; (d) Winston and Choctaw Counties; (e) Kemper and Neshoba Counties; (f) Alcorn County and any contiguous county in which there is located an unapproved jail; (g) Yazoo County and any contiguous county in which there is located an unapproved jail; (h) Chickasaw County and any contiguous county in which there is located an unapproved jail; (i) George and Greene Counties and any contiguous county in which there is located an unapproved jail; (j) Washington County and any contiguous county in which there is located an unapproved jail; (k) Hinds County and any contiguous county in which there is located an unapproved jail; (l) Leake County and any contiguous county in which there is located an unapproved jail; (m) Issaquena County and any contiguous county in which there is located an unapproved jail; (n) Jefferson County and any contiguous county in which there is located an unapproved jail; (o) Franklin County and any contiguous county in which there is located an unapproved jail; (p) Holmes County and any contiguous county in which there is located an unapproved jail; and (q) Bolivar County and any contiguous county in which there is located an unapproved jail. The Department of Corrections shall decide the order of priority of the counties listed in this subsection with which it will contract for the housing of state inmates. For the purposes of this subsection, the term "unapproved jail" means any jail that the local grand jury determines should be condemned or has found to be of substandard condition or in need of substantial repair or reconstruction.

(3) In addition to the offenders authorized to be housed under subsection (1) of this section, the Department of Corrections may contract with any regional facility to provide for housing, care and control of not more than seventy-five (75) additional offenders who are in the custody of the State of Mississippi.

(4) The Governor and the Commissioner of Corrections are authorized to increase administratively the number of offenders who are in the custody of the State of Mississippi that can be placed in regional correctional facilities.

SECTION 5. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2023.