A.  Any property abandoned by a prisoner in a penal institution under the jurisdiction of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections at the time of his discharge from the custody of the department shall, after ninety days from his release, be disposed of in the following manner:

(1)  There shall be notice of the department’s right to dispose of the property in accordance with this procedure on the data sheet listing the property of the person at the time he is transferred into the custody of the department; however, this requirement shall not apply to property in possession of the department prior to September 1, 1985.  

(2)  Ninety days after the release of the prisoner, if after notice to the prisoner within fourteen days after his release the property is unclaimed and not needed for any legal reason by the department, the secretary of the department may authorize the abandoned property to be destroyed, donated to a charitable organization, or put into lawful use within the institution from which it came.  Any legal tender shall be placed in a fund for the benefit of all inmates.  A record of the disposition of all abandoned property shall be maintained.  

(3)  Abandoned property, as defined in Subsection B below, in the possession of the department on September 1, 1985 shall, ninety days after September 1, 1985, be disposed of as set forth in Paragraph (A)(2) above, unless claimed by the prisoner before the ninety days has elapsed.  

B.  For the purposes of this Section, all property which the prisoner leaves at the institution or anywhere within the Department of Public Safety and Corrections, or which he fails to take with him upon discharge and to which he makes no claim prior to his discharge or within ninety days thereafter, shall be considered abandoned.  

C.  At the conclusion of a disciplinary proceeding against a prisoner, which proceeding indicates that property was obtained by the inmate through fraud or misrepresentation of his situation or his personal data such as his race, sex, age, marital status, offender class, nature of his conviction, or release dates, said property shall be returned to the complaining victim upon his submission of an affidavit setting forth the facts of the fraudulent or misrepresented transaction and his request that the property be returned to him.  All such property allegedly obtained through fraud or misrepresentation may be suspended or held in the inmate’s prison account or in inventory storage by the warden pending outcome of the disciplinary proceeding and receipt of the complainant’s affidavit.  Absent receipt of said affidavit within thirty days of its being requested of the complaining victim by the institution, said property shall be disposed of as set forth in Paragraph (A)(2) above.  

Acts 1985, No. 498, §1, eff. July 12, 1985.