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House Bill 2862 |
House Author: McClendon |
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Effective: 9-1-13 |
Senate Sponsor: West |
House Bill 2862 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Family Code to authorize a witness held in the custody of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD), a juvenile secure detention facility, or a juvenile secure correctional facility to be placed in a certified juvenile detention facility for a limited period that may be extended.
House Bill 2862 establishes that a person under the age of 17 who has been certified to stand trial as an adult and who is transferred to an adult facility must be detained under certain conditions as required by the Juvenile Justice Code. The bill requires the judge of the criminal court having jurisdiction over a person who has been so certified and who is detained in a certified juvenile detention facility to order, on the 17th birthday of that person, the transfer of that person to an adult facility.
House Bill 2862 extends a court's authority to retain jurisdiction over respondents in certain incomplete criminal proceedings to include a respondent in a proceeding for waiver of a juvenile court's jurisdiction over a child and the transfer of that jurisdiction to criminal court. The bill establishes the county of residence for a child who is found to have engaged in delinquent conduct or conduct indicating a need for supervision, while the child is the subject of a suit affecting the parent-child relationship, for purposes of the transfer of the child's case.
House Bill 2862 sets out the rights and responsibilities of the juvenile probation department of a county that originally placed a child on probation or assumed permanent supervision of the child under an intercounty transfer of probation supervision and of the county to which the child has moved or intends to move regarding certain DNA documentation requirements and certain requests for interim supervision.
House Bill 2862 sets out the conditions that must exist in order for a child to be detained in a nonsecure correctional facility until the child is released or until a detention hearing is held. The bill changes the maximum period of detention for a child who is a status offender, for purposes of enabling the child's return to the child's home in another state, to the period allowed under the Interstate Compact for Juveniles.
House Bill 2862 requires a juvenile court, if the juvenile court orders a person detained in a certified juvenile detention facility pending trial in a court for criminal proceedings or until the criminal court enters an order for the person to be transferred to an adult facility, to set or deny bond for the person as required by law applicable to the pretrial detention of adults accused of criminal offenses. The bill specifies that a person's parent, custodian, guardian, or guardian ad litem is not considered a party to a criminal proceeding after a juvenile court waives its exclusive jurisdiction of the person's case and that it is not necessary to provide such persons with the notice otherwise required. The bill authorizes a juvenile court's waiver of exclusive jurisdiction to be made without the necessity of obtaining a complete diagnostic study, social evaluation, and full investigation of the child, the child's circumstances, and the circumstances of the alleged offense. The bill requires a court, if requested by the attorney for the person at least 10 days before a hearing on the transfer of the person to the appropriate district court or criminal district court for criminal proceedings, to order that the person undergo a physical or mental examination to determine whether the person has a mental illness or is a person with mental retardation and that the results of the examination be provided to the attorney for the person and the attorney for the state at least five days before the transfer hearing. The bill establishes that only the petition for discretionary transfer, the order of transfer, and the order of commitment, if any, for a child transferred from a juvenile court to a criminal court are a part of the district clerk's public record.
House Bill 2862 changes the deadline for a court to provide the attorney for a child in a disposition hearing or in a hearing to modify a disposition with access to all written matter to be considered by the court. The bill authorizes a court, if the court or jury makes the finding necessary for the court to make a disposition in a case, to place the child in a suitable nonsecure correctional facility that is registered and meets the applicable standard for the facility.
House Bill 2862 revises the method by which a juvenile probation department that receives a payment to a victim as the result of a juvenile court order for restitution must notify the victim that a payment has been received.
House Bill 2862 requires a hearing to determine whether a child who is placed on probation for a period that will continue after the child's 19th birthday should be transferred to an appropriate district court or discharged from the sentence of probation to be conducted before the child's 18th birthday if the offense for which the child was placed on probation occurred before September 1, 2011. The bill establishes that, after a transfer to district court is made, only the petition, the grand jury approval, the judgment concerning the conduct for which the child was placed on determinate sentence probation, and the transfer order are a part of the district clerk's public record.
House Bill 2862 expands the information that a court, in a hearing on the transfer of a person from TJJD to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice or the release under supervision of a person committed to TJJD, is authorized to consider, changes the deadline for the court to provide the attorney for the person to be transferred or released with access to all written matter to be considered by the court, and makes all written matter admissible in evidence at the hearing.
House Bill 2862 provides that statistical data collected or maintained by TJJD, rather than any records so collected or maintained, is not subject to an order sealing the records of a person who has been found to have engaged in delinquent conduct or conduct indicating a need for supervision or a person taken into custody to determine whether the person engaged in such conduct.
House Bill 2862 expands the circumstances under which the Department of Public Safety (DPS), on certification by DPS that the records in a person's juvenile case are subject to automatic restriction, may permit access to the information in the juvenile justice information system relating to the case. The bill establishes that statutory provisions authorizing an agency maintaining juvenile records subject to automatic restriction, on receipt of a juvenile court order restricting access to the records, to allow access to the records only by certain entities and persons and requiring the agency to respond to a request for information about such records by stating that the records do not exist do not apply if the subject of such an order is under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court or TJJD or if the agency has received notice that the records are not subject to restricted access on the basis of the subject's conviction of or placement on deferred adjudication for a felony or misdemeanor punishable by confinement in jail for an offense committed after the person reached the age of 17. The bill authorizes an agency that may access juvenile records subject to automatic restriction to permit access by the state military forces or the United States military forces to juvenile records held by that agency. The bill requires a probation officer or an official at the TJJD reception center, when a child is placed on probation for an offense that may be eligible for automatic restricted access to records at age 17 or when a child is received by TJJD on an indeterminate commitment, to explain to the child as soon as practicable that if the child is under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court or TJJD on or after the child's 17th birthday, the law regarding restricted access will not apply until the person is discharged from the jurisdiction of the court or TJJD, as applicable.
House Bill 2862 amends the Human Resources Code to require TJJD, during the annual registration of juvenile facilities, to collect and make publicly available data on the number of placements in disciplinary seclusion based on the duration of the seclusion. The bill limits the types of hearings at which a statement made by a child under the jurisdiction of and properly referred to a juvenile probation department and any mental health data obtained from the child during the administration of a mental health screening instrument or the initial risk and needs assessment instruments are inadmissible. The bill expands the information that a court that commits a child to TJJD is required to provide TJJD.