(A) Except as provided in division (C) of this section, the department of rehabilitation and correction may enter into an agreement with any local authority operating a county, multicounty, municipal, municipal-county, or multicounty-municipal jail or workhouse, as described in section 307.93, 341.21, or 753.16 of the Revised Code, for the housing in the jail or workhouse operated by the local authority of persons who are convicted of or plead guilty to a felony of the fourth or fifth degree if the person previously has not been convicted of or pleaded guilty to a felony and if the felony is not an offense of violence. The agreement shall specify a per diem fee that the department shall pay the local authority for each such person housed in the jail or workhouse pursuant to the agreement, shall set forth any other terms and conditions for the housing of such persons in the jail or workhouse, and shall indicate that the department, subject to the relevant terms and conditions set forth, may designate those persons to be housed at the jail or workhouse.

(B) A person designated by the department to be housed in a county, multicounty, municipal, municipal-county, or multicounty-municipal jail or workhouse that is the subject of an agreement entered into under division (A) of this section shall be conveyed by the department to that jail or workhouse and shall be kept at the jail or workhouse until the person's term of imprisonment expires, the person is pardoned, paroled, or placed under a post-release control sanction, or the person is transferred under the laws permitting the transfer of prisoners. The department shall pay the local authority that operates the jail or workhouse the per diem fee specified in the agreement for each such person housed in the jail or workhouse. Each such person housed in the jail or workhouse shall be under the direct supervision and control of the keeper, superintendent, or other person in charge of the jail or workhouse, but shall be considered for all other purposes to be within the custody of the department of rehabilitation and correction. Section 2967.193 of the Revised Code and all other provisions of the Revised Code that pertain to persons within the custody of the department that would not by their nature clearly be inapplicable apply to persons housed pursuant to this section.

(C) The department of rehabilitation and correction shall not enter into an agreement pursuant to division (A) of this section with any local authority unless the jail or workhouse operated by the authority complies with the Minimum Standards for Jails in Ohio.

(D) A court that sentences a person for a felony may include as the sentence or part of the sentence, in accordance with division (A) of section 2929.16 of the Revised Code and regardless of whether the jail or workhouse is the subject of an agreement entered into under division (A) of this section, a sanction that consists of a term of up to six months in a jail or workhouse or, if the offense is a fourth degree felony OVI offense and the offender is sentenced under division (G)(1) of section 2929.13 of the Revised Code, a sanction that consists of a term of up to one year in jail less the mandatory term of local incarceration of sixty or one hundred twenty consecutive days imposed pursuant to division (G)(1) of section 2929.13 of the Revised Code.

(E) "Fourth degree felony OVI offense" and "mandatory term of local incarceration" have the same meanings as in section 2929.01 of the Revised Code.

Effective Date: 01-01-2004.