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S 2114

Enacts the "vehicular violence accountability act"

2025 Regular Session Introduced by Jeremy Cooney and 1 co-sponsor

A statewide, five-year moratorium bans building, expanding, converting, or renovating correctional facilities, with limited maintenance exceptions and a small bed-transfer option f

REPORTED AND COMMITTED TO CODES
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Bill Summary · S 2114

Summary — S.2114: "Vehicular Violence Accountability Act" (filed as An Act establishing a jail and prison construction moratorium)

Note: The bill text provided is an Act to establish a jail and prison construction moratorium (Senate Docket No. 671 / Senate No. 2114). Primary filer listed in the text: Senator Joanne M. Comerford.

Purpose

To impose a statewide moratorium (temporary ban) on building, expanding, converting, or substantially renovating correctional facilities and detention centers operated or funded by state or public agencies, with narrowly defined maintenance exceptions and a limited capacity-transfer carve‑out for county sheriffs. The moratorium is time‑limited and automatically repealed five years after the act’s effective date.

Key provisions

  • Adds Section 73 to Chapter 7C (new moratorium language):
    • Prohibits a state or public agency from, without exception:
    • Studying, planning, designing, acquiring, leasing, site‑searching for, or constructing new correctional facilities or detention centers.
    • Expanding the capacity of existing correctional facilities or detention centers beyond their current design/rated capacity.
    • Converting any part of existing or dormant correctional facilities into spaces for detention/incarceration or to change/expand incarcerated populations.
    • Renovating existing/dormant facilities beyond "routine maintenance" except limited improvements required for compliance with federal/state law (building, health, fire codes) and certain upgrades (plumbing, food/medical services, heating/cooling, removing restrictive housing, improving programming spaces) — provided such improvements do not increase bed capacity and must improve living conditions.
    • Repairing facilities for the purpose of expanding them or increasing bed capacity.
  • County sheriff transfer exception (Section 2):
    • Defines "county jail and regional lockup facility" and permits, if a county jail and regional lockup closes, the county sheriff to transfer up to 30 beds from the closed facility to an existing county correctional facility within the same county.
  • Sunset/repeal:
    • Sections establishing the moratorium (Section 73) and the county-bed transfer exception are repealed five years after the act’s effective date, making the moratorium time‑limited.

Who is affected

  • State agencies and public agencies that build, operate, plan, or fund correctional facilities.
  • County sheriffs and county correctional facilities (limited transfer allowance).
  • Municipalities and regional law enforcement that use regional lockups.
  • Contractors, architects, designers, and vendors involved in correctional construction and renovation.
  • Incarcerated people and communities affected by capacity and conditions.

Timeline & procedural status

  • Bill text filed (Senate Docket No. 671 / Senate No. 2114).
  • Legislative actions in the provided record include committee referrals and a report and recommitment to Codes (reported and committed to Codes on 2025‑05‑13).
  • The moratorium and transfer rule take effect on the act’s effective date; both provisions automatically expire (are repealed) five years later.

Potential impacts and considerations

  • Immediately halts expansion of incarceration capacity at the state/public level for up to five years; could shift policy emphasis toward alternatives to incarceration or repurposing of funds.
  • Allows limited, discrete maintenance and improvements that do not increase bed capacity and that improve living conditions.
  • Provides a constrained pathway (transfer of up to 30 beds) to absorb capacity when a county jail closes, while otherwise preventing capacity growth.
  • Raises operational planning implications for counties, state corrections agencies, and municipalities that may have pending projects for new or expanded facilities.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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