House Bill No. 44

Introduced By devaney

By Request of the Department of Corrections



A Bill for an Act entitled: "An Act limiting the financial transactions of correctional facility inmates; and providing for disclosure of inmates' assets and monitoring of their bank accounts."



Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Montana:



NEW SECTION. Section 1.  Limits on inmate financial transactions. A correctional facility inmate is prohibited from making a financial transaction with any person except through a prison inmate trust account administered by the department of corrections. An inmate may not send or receive money in excess of $100 aggregate a month through the account. Money entering the account in excess of $100 in any month is subject to forfeiture to the department, which may use forfeited money to pay restitution and incarceration costs. The department may charge an inmate a minimum fee, not to exceed $2, for each account transaction.



NEW SECTION. Section 2.  Inmate asset disclosure and bank account monitoring. (1) Each correctional facility inmate shall disclose in writing all of the inmate's assets to the department of corrections and affirm under oath that the disclosure is accurate and complete. Failure to do so is an offense under 45-7-302.

(2) Each correctional facility inmate shall sign a release authorizing the department to monitor any bank account held by the inmate. Failure to do so is an offense under 45-7-302.



NEW SECTION. Section 3.  Codification instruction. [Sections 1 and 2] are intended to be codified as an integral part of Title 53, chapter 1, part 1.

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