Enrolled Bill Summary

            House Bill 772 amends the Government Code to replace references to "special needs parole" with "medically recommended intensive supervision" and to expand the list of inmates eligible for release under the program to include those having a condition requiring long-term care. The bill transfers the authority to identify those eligible from the institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to the Texas Council on Offenders with Mental Impairments (TCOMI), in cooperation with the Correctional Managed Health Care Committee. The bill requires the TCOMI, in cooperation with the pardons and paroles division, to prepare a medically recommended intensive supervision plan to be approved before release. The TCOMI and the Texas Department of Human Services are required to jointly request proposals from public or private vendors to provide services for inmates released on medically recommended intensive supervision.

            The bill requires a parole panel to mandate as a condition of release that the offender remain under the care of a physician and in a medically suitable placement. The parole panel is authorized, under certain conditions, to modify conditions of release and to impose new conditions on the offender.