22 AAC 05.660. Definitions

(a) In this chapter, unless the context requires otherwise,

(1) "administrative segregation" means a form of separation from the general facility population, in accordance with 22 AAC 05.485, if the continued presence of a prisoner in the general population would be a serious threat to life, property, self, staff, other prisoners, or the security or orderly administration of the facility; "administrative segregation" does not include maximum custody housing under 22 AAC 05.271;

(2) "administrative transfer" means the transfer of a prisoner between facilities for any purpose related to an emergency or potentially hazardous situation or to facilitate an administrative action that can be more efficiently accomplished at another facility, such as parole hearing, court action, medical or mental health treatment, military tribunal, family emergency, or population management;

(3) "admission" means the administrative process of accepting a prisoner into an adult correctional facility;

(4) "assistant superintendent" means the deputy chief administrator of an adult correctional facility or any employee of the department designated by the assistant superintendent, superintendent, regional director, deputy commissioner or the commissioner to carry out an official function of the assistant superintendent;

(5) "body cavity search" means the intrusive manual, mechanical, or instrument examination of a person's body appendages and openings by medical personnel;

(6) "central classification" means the staff in the department responsible for system-wide classification and coordination, or any employee of the department designated by the commissioner or deputy commissioner to carry out any official function relating to system-wide classification and coordination;

(7) "classification form" means the form used to provide specific guidelines for the review and assessment of a prisoner's security and custody levels; there is a form for sentenced prisoners and one for unsentenced prisoners;

(8) "classification packet" means prisoner case record information forwarded to central classification for effecting a classification action, which contains, if applicable, a final Judgment and Commitment, presentence investigation report, recent psychiatric and psychological report, time accounting records, any security designation or classification form, needs assessment survey form, and related information;

(9) "commissioner" means the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Corrections, or any employee of the department designated by the commissioner to carry out any official function of the commissioner;

(10) "contract facility" means a correctional facility provided to the Department of Corrections by agreement under AS 33.30.031 ;

(11) "custody status" means one of several categories to which a prisoner is assigned and which describes the prisoner's freedom of movement within an adult correctional facility or the community, and the degree of supervision required;

(12) "department" means the Alaska Department of Corrections;

(13) "deputy commissioner" means the deputy commissioner for operations of the Department of Corrections, or any employee of the department designated by the commissioner or deputy commissioner for operations to carry out an official function of the deputy commissioner;

(14) "designation" means initial determination of placement for a prisoner, based upon security, custody, and program requirements;

(15) "exception case" means a prisoner whose offense or subsequent conduct involves: a notorious crime, such as one that has attracted substantial attention in the media, that is particularly violent, or that is a serious sex offense; substantial threats against a person or persons; or an escape risk such as an escape attempt in the last five years or an actual escape in the last 10 years;

(16) "facility" or "correctional facility" means a state prison facility or institution operated and managed by employees of the department designated by the commissioner, for the confinement, care, and discipline of prisoners;

(17) "facility emergency" means a situation in which a prisoner or prisoners, or other circumstances, pose a threat to the security of the facility or any part of the facility and which cannot be managed without extraordinary measures;

(18) "firm release date" means the date on which a prisoner is scheduled to be released, as established by statutory good time calculation, court order, or parole board action;

(19) "frisk search" means a visual and physical pat-down search of a person's clothing and body parts that are visible without the removal of clothing;

(20) "frivolous" means a grievance complaint that addresses information or circumstances that are trivial, lacking in seriousness, irresponsible, self-indulgent, or that have already been addressed;

(21) "mail" means correspondence, printed materials, or packages sent to or from prisoners through the U.S. Postal Service; "mail" does not include material enclosed within mail which did not originate with the sending individual or organization;

(22) "obscene" means (A) words, gestures, language, books, newspapers, periodicals or other written or pictorial materials that the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, ultimate sexual acts, masturbation, excretory functions, lewd exhibition of the genitals or sexual sado-masochistic activity; (B) that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest; and (C) that the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value;

(23) "override" means a classification decision changing security or custody levels to a level different from that which would ordinarily be assigned on the basis of scoring on the classification form, or which has been assigned by a lower level of authority;

(24) "posted" means placed upon a wall or bulletin board, or other form of notice generally available to the prisoner population of a facility such as a prisoner handbook;

(25) "preponderance of the evidence" means the evidence used in a disciplinary proceeding indicating that the prisoner is more likely than not to have committed the acts charged;

(26) "pretrial detainee" means a prisoner held pending adjudication of a criminal charge;

(27) "prisoner" means a person detained or confined for a period of time in a correctional facility, whether by arrest, conviction, order of court, or a person held as a witness, or otherwise "prisoner" includes municipal prisoners held under contract, but excludes juveniles held under the authority of AS 47.10;

(28) "probable cause" means the level of reliability which arises when the facts and circumstances within the officer's knowledge, including the reasonable inferences that may be drawn from the facts and circumstances, and of which the officer has reasonably trustworthy information, are sufficient to warrant a reasonable person to believe that the suspected item, condition, or circumstance exists and justifies action;

(29) "regional director" or "director" means the chief administrator of the Department of Corrections for the southeast, southcentral, or northern region of the state, or any employee of the department designated by the commissioner, deputy commissioner, or regional director to carry out an official function of the regional director;

(30) "restitution center" means a residential center in the community which provides certain non-violent prisoners the opportunity for rehabilitation through community service and employment while protecting the community through supervision and partial incarceration, and creates a means to provide restitution to victims of crimes, payment of court-ordered fines, dependent support, prisoner cost of care, and other prisoner expenses;

(31) "security" means the interest of the department in preventing assaults, escapes, hazards to health, detriment to reformation or rehabilitation, self-destructive behavior, property damage, and the introduction, transmittal, or possession of contraband;

(32) "special medical needs" means serious and complex medical treatment and care needs of a prisoner that, because of the nature of the medical condition or the extraordinary cost involved in the treatment, cannot be provided in the State of Alaska;

(33) "special mental health needs" means needs of a prisoner who, in the opinion of a physician, psychologist, or psychiatrist, is suffering from a mental illness for which the prisoner cannot secure adequate treatment in prison and who cannot be given adequate mental or psychiatric treatment in a facility owned or operated by the state;

(34) "strip search" means a visual search of a person which requires the complete removal of clothing, and includes a visual body cavity search;

(35) "superintendent" means the chief administrator of an adult correctional facility, or any employee of the department designated by the superintendent, regional director, deputy commissioner, or the commissioner to carry out an official function of the superintendent;

(36) "traditional or rural Alaska lifestyle" means an individual's way of life as reflected by one or both of the following:

(A) an individual whose entire life has been spent essentially in a village or rural setting with a population of 1,000 or less, which is not connected by roadways or ferries to a metropolitan community of greater than 1,000 population: a person from a setting with a population greater than 1,000, such as Bethel, Nome, Barrow or Kotzebue might fall in this category if the totality of the circumstances indicates a background that is extremely rural or traditional in character such as a rural Alaskan whose social experience is typified by in-village or remote residence with his or her conduct and means of livelihood being of a subsistence nature and lacking in exposure to non-rural life and having negligible commercial work experience for wages; time spent for schooling at Mt. Edgecumbe in Sitka does not in and of itself preclude a person from being classified as having maintained a traditional, subsistence, or rural Alaskan lifestyle; or

(B) a person who is not fluent in the English language and communicates predominantly in an Alaska Native language;

(37) "working day" means a 24-hour period of which no portion includes a Saturday, Sunday, or holiday; in computing a period of time prescribed or allowed by this chapter and pertaining to a "working day," the day of the act, event, or default from which the designated period of time begins to run is not to be included; the last day of the period is to be included, unless it is a Saturday, a Sunday or a legal holiday, in which case the period runs until the end of the next working day; a half-holiday is considered as other working days and not as a holiday;

(38) "director of institutions" or "director" means the director of the division of institutions for the Department of Corrections, or any employee designated by the commissioner, deputy commissioner, or director of institutions to carry out an official function of the director of institutions;

(39) "disciplinary tribunal" means a hearing officer or a disciplinary committee, as applicable, designated under 22 AAC 05.450;

(40) "hearing officer" means a department employee or a person employed by a contractor of the department, designated by the superintendent of a correctional facility to preside and issue decisions in prisoner disciplinary hearings.

(b) In this chapter, and in AS 11.56.390 , with respect to a correctional facility as defined in AS 11, "contraband" means any of the following items that have not been specifically approved, authorized, or prescribed by the proper authorities for a prisoner to obtain, make, or possess:

(1) weapons, including firearms, explosives, knives, hacksaw blades, tear gas, dangerous chemical agents, or any tool or other object that may be used as a weapon, from which a weapon may be fashioned, or that is intended to be perceived as a weapon;

(2) controlled substances, the possession of which is punishable by either criminal or civil penalties, and any other type of medication;

(3) alcohol, including wine, distilled spirits, home brew, and any other type of alcoholic substance;

(4) cameras, sound or video recorders, or any electronic or mechanical receiving or transmitting equipment;

(5) any article, including keys, tools, electronic or mechanical devices, and identification information, intended to be used as a means of facilitating an escape; and

(6) any other article, including money, toiletries, books, food, mail, and pictures, that is introduced, taken, or conveyed into a facility, or made, obtained, or possessed in a facility in a manner intended to frustrate or evade detection.

(1) "family" means any person or group of persons having the relationship to a prisoner of spouse, father, mother, sister, brother, son, daughter; step-relationship to those relationships; or a person having an immediate-family relationship with the prisoner during formative years;

(2) "furlough" means the authorized absence of a prisoner from a facility for a designated purpose and period of time.

History: Eff. 9/10/77, Register 63; am 8/30/80, Register 75; am 11/3/84, Register 92; am 1/9/87, Register 101; am 11/13/99, Register 152

Authority: AS 01.10.080

The Alaska Administrative Code was automatically converted to HTML from a plain text format. Every effort has been made to ensure its accuracy, but neither Touch N' Go Systems nor the Law Offices of James B. Gottstein can be held responsible for any possible errors. This version of the Alaska Administrative Code is current through June, 2006.

If it is critical that the precise terms of the Alaska Administrative Code be known, it is recommended that more formal sources be consulted. Recent editions of the Alaska Administrative Journal may be obtained from the Alaska Lieutenant Governor's Office on the world wide web. If any errors are found, please e-mail Touch N' Go systems at E-mail. We hope you find this information useful. Copyright 2006. Touch N' Go Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.