(A) When a person over sixteen years of age is convicted of an offense under the law of this state or an ordinance of a municipal corporation, and the tribunal before which the conviction is had is authorized by law to commit the offender to the county jail or municipal corporation prison, the court, mayor, or judge of the county court, as the case may be, may sentence the offender to a workhouse.

When a commitment is made from a municipal corporation or township in the county, other than in a municipal corporation having a workhouse, the legislative authority of the municipal corporation or the board of township trustees shall transmit with the mittimus a sum of money equal to not less than seventy cents per day for the time of the commitment, to be placed in the hands of the superintendent of a workhouse for the care and maintenance of the prisoner.

(B) Pursuant to section 2929.37 of the Revised Code, the legislative authority of the municipal corporation or the board of township trustees may require a person who is convicted of an offense and who is confined in a workhouse as provided in division (A) of this section, to reimburse the municipal corporation or the township, as the case may be, for its expenses incurred by reason of the person's confinement.

(C) Notwithstanding any contrary provision in this section or section 2929.18, 2929.28, or 2929.37 of the Revised Code, the legislative authority of the municipal corporation or board of township trustees may establish a policy that complies with section 2929.38 of the Revised Code and that requires any person who is not indigent and who is confined in the workhouse under division (A) of this section to pay a reception fee, a fee for any medical treatment or service requested by and provided to that person, or the fee for a random drug test assessed under division (E) of section 753.33 of the Revised Code.

(D) If a person who has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to an offense is incarcerated in a workhouse or if a person who has been arrested for an offense, and who has not been denied bail or has had bail set and has not been released on bail is confined in a workhouse pending trial, at the time of reception and at other times the person in charge of the operation of the workhouse determines to be appropriate, the person in charge of the operation of the workhouse may cause the convicted or accused 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 workhouse may cause a convicted or accused offender in the workhouse 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.

Effective Date: 01-01-2004 .