(A) Except when a mandatory jail term is required by law, the court imposing a sentence for a misdemeanor, other than a minor misdemeanor, may impose upon the offender any community residential sanction or combination of community residential sanctions under this section. Community residential sanctions include, but are not limited to, the following:

(1) A term of up to one hundred eighty days in a halfway house or community-based correctional facility or a term in a halfway house or community-based correctional facility not to exceed the longest jail term available for the offense, whichever is shorter, if the political subdivision that would have responsibility for paying the costs of confining the offender in a jail has entered into a contract with the halfway house or community-based correctional facility for use of the facility for misdemeanor offenders;

(2) If the offender is an eligible offender, as defined in section 307.932 of the Revised Code, a term in a community alternative sentencing center or district community alternative sentencing center established and operated in accordance with that section, in the circumstances specified in that section, with one of the conditions of the sanction being that the offender successfully complete the portion of the sentence to be served in the center .

(B) A sentence to a community residential sanction under division (A)(2) of this section shall be in accordance with section 307.932 of the Revised Code. In all other cases, the court that sentences an offender to a community residential sanction under this section may do either or both of the following:

(1) Permit the offender to serve the offender's sentence in intermittent confinement, overnight, on weekends or at any other time or times that will allow the offender to continue at the offender's occupation or care for the offender's family;

(2) Authorize the offender to be released so that the offender may seek or maintain employment, receive education or training, receive treatment, perform community service, or otherwise fulfill an obligation imposed by law or by the court. A release pursuant to this division shall be only for the duration of time that is needed to fulfill the purpose of the release and for travel that reasonably is necessary to fulfill the purposes of the release.

(C) The court may order that a reasonable portion of the income earned by the offender upon a release pursuant to division (B) of this section be applied to any financial sanction imposed under section 2929.28 of the Revised Code.

(D) No court shall sentence any person to a prison term for a misdemeanor or minor misdemeanor or to a jail term for a minor misdemeanor.

(E) If a court sentences a person who has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor to a community residential sanction as described in division (A) of this section, at the time of reception and at other times the person in charge of the operation of the halfway house, community alternative sentencing center, district community alternative sentencing center, or other place at which the offender will serve the residential sanction determines to be appropriate, the person in charge of the operation of the halfway house, community alternative sentencing center, district community alternative sentencing center, or other place may cause the convicted offender to be examined and tested for tuberculosis, HIV infection, hepatitis, including, but not limited to, hepatitis A, B, and C, and other contagious diseases. The person in charge of the operation of the halfway house, community alternative sentencing center, district community alternative sentencing center, or other place at which the offender will serve the residential sanction may cause a convicted offender in the halfway house, community alternative sentencing center, district community alternative sentencing center, or other place who refuses to be tested or treated for tuberculosis, HIV infection, hepatitis, including, but not limited to, hepatitis A, B, and C, or another contagious disease to be tested and treated involuntarily.

(F) A political subdivision may enter into a contract with a halfway house for use of the halfway house to house misdemeanor offenders under a sanction imposed under division (A)(1) of this section.

Amended by 130th General Assembly File No. TBD, SB 143, §1, eff. 9/19/2014.

Amended by 129th General AssemblyFile No.141, HB 509, §1, eff. 9/28/2012.

Amended by 129th General AssemblyFile No.131, SB 337, §1, eff. 9/28/2012.

Amended by 129th General AssemblyFile No.29, HB 86, §1, eff. 9/30/2011.

Effective Date: 01-01-2004 .