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Senate Bill 1009 |
Senate Author: Deuell |
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Effective: 9-1-09 |
House Sponsor: Harper-Brown |
Senate Bill 1009 amends the Government Code to continue the Commission on Jail Standards until September 1, 2021. In addition to across-the-board sunset provisions, the bill requires the commission to develop a comprehensive set of risk factors to use in assessing the overall risk level of each jail under the commission's jurisdiction and use the set of risk factors to guide the inspections process for such jails by establishing a risk assessment plan for assessing the overall risk level of each jail and by regularly monitoring those overall risk levels. The bill expands the commission's general duties to include adopting a policy for gathering and distributing to jails certain information regarding jail administration, compliance, and operation; reporting to the Texas Correctional Office on Offenders with Medical or Mental Impairments on a jail's compliance with statutes relating to the examination and transfer of defendants suspected of having mental illness or mental retardation; adopting reasonable rules and procedures establishing minimum requirements for jails regarding pregnant prisoners; and providing guidelines to sheriffs regarding contracts for food services to or the operation of a commissary in a jail under the commission's jurisdiction. The bill requires the monthly jail population report submitted by each county to the commission to include the total of prisoners confined in the county jail who were known or determined to be pregnant. The bill requires the commission to provide information to the public about whether jails are in compliance with state law and the rules, standards, and procedures of the commission.