Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. As used in this act, the following words shall have the following meanings:-

"County", Plymouth county, acting through its duly elected commissioners or other duly authorized representatives, or any governmental unit or body succeeding to the rights, properties, powers, duties and responsibilities of such county.

"Department", the Plymouth county sheriff's department, or any successor to the rights, powers, duties and responsibilities thereof.

"Financing lease", a lease, whether entered into prior to or after the effective date of this act, by the county of the site on which the project is to be located to one or more entities and the simultaneous or subsequent leaseback by the county of the project for a term not to exceed forty years from the date of commencement of said leaseback, subject to the option or options of the county to acquire the project during or upon expiration of the term of the leaseback for an amount or amounts specified in the leaseback.

"Project", the criminal detention facility to be constructed on a site located in the county and such site being more particularly described as a portion of the parcel of land, said portion consisting of approximately thirty-two acres, situated on the southwesterly side of the state highway and the northeasterly side of Long pond road in the town of Plymouth, being shown as a parcel of land containing 64.53 acres on a plan entitled "Plan of Land in Plymouth, Massachusetts", dated June 4, 1980, and recorded in Plan Book 21, page 932 in the Plymouth county registry of deeds, which facility is designed to accommodate up to one thousand one hundred and forty beds available for the detention of prisoners of the United States, the county, the commonwealth and other political subdivisions of the commonwealth.

SECTION 2. The design, construction and equipping, construction management, development, financing, leasing and leaseback of the project, or any part of the project, and any contract relating directly or indirectly to said design, construction and equipping, construction management, development, financing, leasing or leaseback, shall be exempt from the provisions of sections thirty-eight A> to thirty-eight O, inclusive, clause (c) of section thirty-nine B, sections forty A to forty C, inclusive, section forty-one B and the second and fourth paragraphs of section forty-two C of chapter seven of the General Laws, section thirty-nine M of chapter thirty of the General Laws, sections forty-four A to forty-four M, inclusive, of chapter one hundred and forty-nine of the General Laws and any other general or special law or regulation providing for the advertising or bidding of contracts relating to improvements to, leasing of, or the acquisition or disposition of interests in, real or personal property.

SECTION 3. Notwithstanding the provisions of the first paragraph of section fourteen of chapter thirty-four of the General Laws, Plymouth county shall not be required to offer the real estate for the project for sale or lease to the commonwealth or the town of Plymouth; nor shall said county be required to further comply with the notification, publication, or public hearing requirements of said section fourteen of said chapter thirty-four.

SECTION 4. Notwithstanding the provisions of section thirty-four of chapter thirty-five of the General Laws, the financing lease for the project may be entered into for a period not to exceed forty years.

SECTION 5. Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law to the contrary, all sales, purchases and lease payments made in connection with the construction, including the acquisition of any related personal property, operation and leasing of the project, or any part of the project, shall be exempt from the provisions of chapter sixty-four H and chapter sixty-four I of the General Laws.

SECTION 6. No contracts may be entered into for the design, construction, development, financing, management, operation, leasing or leaseback of the project, or any part of the project, without the approval of the county and the department, in addition to any other approvals required by law. The county and the department shall contract with a qualified individual or firm hereinafter called the technical representative to (1) assist in the negotiation of all contracts for the design, construction and development of the project and (2) perform the functions hereinafter described. Neither the county nor the department shall approve any contracts in excess of one hundred thousand dollars until it receives from the technical representative written findings that (a) the terms of any contracts covered by the foregoing provision are fair and competitive; (b) the contracting parties have the necessary qualifications to perform their contractual obligations in a timely and satisfactory manner; (c) the design of the project would satisfy the criteria established under any agreements then in effect providing for the use of the project as a criminal detention facility by the United States, the county, the commonwealth or any political subdivision thereof; and (d) the materials, if any, to be used in the performance of the contract are appropriate for their intended use.

SECTION 7. The county and the department shall jointly prepare and file with the clerk of the house and the clerk of the senate who shall forward the same to the house and senate chairmen of the committees on counties within sixty days after the close of each fiscal year of the county during which the project is being constructed a report of the county's and the department's operations and procedures under the provisions of this act.

SECTION 8. Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law to the contrary, the number of prisoners of the commonwealth that are accommodated by the criminal detention facility described in section one shall continue to be thirty-three percent of said facility's capacity.

SECTION 8A. Notwithstanding the provision of any general or special law to the contrary, within ninety days of the opening of a new Plymouth county jail and house of correction, the existing facility located on Obery street in the town of Plymouth shall be closed and shall not be reopened, in whole or in part, as a jail, correctional institution or facility, house of correction or other facility of a similar nature. The commonwealth shall not by eminent domain, purchase, gift, or otherwise take an ownership interest for the purposes of maintaining any such correctional facility in any buildings or lands comprising the existing Plymouth county jail and house of correction.

SECTION 9. This act shall take effect upon its passage.