(a) The commissioner shall establish a reasonable utility fee for electrical utilities that are used by prisoners who are confined in a state correctional facility.

Terms Used In Alaska Statutes 33.30.017

  • Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
  • state: means the State of Alaska unless applied to the different parts of the United States and in the latter case it includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Alaska Statutes 01.10.060
(b) The commissioner shall

(1) charge each prisoner who possesses at least one major electrical appliance the utility fee established in (a) of this section; the commissioner may deduct the utility fee monthly from the account established for a prisoner into which money due the prisoner for labor is paid; if a prisoner is indigent, the commissioner shall make the deduction from any amount credited to the indigent inmate’s account;
(2) if available from legislative appropriation, expend money deducted and collected under (1) of this subsection to offset the cost of the department’s utility expenses; the commissioner shall annually report on the amounts that are collected and expended under this paragraph.
(c) The provisions of (b) of this section do not apply to prisoners

(1) who are

(A) developmentally disabled; or
(B) severely medically or cognitively disabled, as that term is defined in Alaska Stat. § 33.16.900;
(2) who are housed in a mental health unit or psychiatric unit of a state correctional facility; or
(3) while placed in a state correctional facility awaiting classification under classification procedures for the purpose of making the appropriate assignment of the prisoner.