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House Bill 8 |
House Author: Thompson, Senfronia et al. |
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Effective: 9-1-13 |
Senate Sponsor: Van de Putte et al. |
House Bill 8 revises provisions relating to the prosecution and punishment of offenses related to trafficking of persons and to protections for trafficking victims. The bill amends Code of Criminal Procedure provisions regarding protective orders and temporary ex parte orders to, among other things, include certain protections for victims of sexual abuse and trafficking. The bill makes a defendant convicted of compelling prostitution or trafficking of persons ineligible for jury-recommended community supervision and requires the Board of Pardons and Paroles to develop certain educational materials for certain persons who commit an offense solely as a trafficking victim. The bill includes a trafficking victim among the persons eligible to receive a certain onetime-only assistance payment and among the persons for whom the attorney general is required to establish an address confidentiality program.
House Bill 8 amends the Government Code to make an inmate serving a sentence for compelling prostitution or trafficking of persons ineligible for release on parole until a specified time.
House Bill 8 amends the Penal Code to increase the age and revise conditions under which a person being solicited in a prostitution offense results in a penalty enhancement and to specify that a prostitution conviction may be used as an enhancement for that offense or under provisions relating to exceptional sentences. The bill enhances, under certain conditions, the penalties for promotion of prostitution, aggravated promotion of prostitution, and certain obscenity offenses and expands the conduct constituting the offenses of possession or promotion of child pornography and engaging in organized criminal activity.