Enrolled Bill Summary

Senate Bill 1173	Senate Author:  West
Effective:  9-1-13	House Sponsor:  White

            Senate Bill 1173 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to require a presentence investigation report regarding a defendant charged with a state jail felony to contain recommendations for conditions of community supervision that the applicable community supervision and corrections department considers advisable or appropriate. The bill authorizes a judge to order the sentence for certain state jail felony offenses to be executed in whole or in part, with a term of community supervision to commence immediately on the defendant's release from confinement, and requires the judge, in any case in which the jury assesses the punishment, to follow the jury's recommendations in suspending the sentence's imposition or ordering the sentence to be executed, and to order the sentence to be executed in whole if the jury does not recommend community supervision. The bill requires a judge assessing punishment, before imposing such a sentence, to review the presentence investigation report and determine whether the best interests of justice require the judge to suspend the sentence's imposition and place the defendant on community supervision or to order the sentence to be executed in whole or in part. The bill requires a judge who assesses punishment and suspends the execution of the sentence or orders the execution of the sentence only in part to impose conditions of community supervision consistent with the report's recommendations.

            Senate Bill 1173 amends the Government Code to require the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) to adopt policies and procedures for determining the cost savings to TDCJ realized through the release of state jail felony defendants on community supervision after serving part of the sentence and for providing 30 percent of that cost savings to the community justice assistance division to be allocated to individual community supervision and corrections departments and used for the same purpose as statutorily mandated state aid payments to those departments.