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Senate Bill 1580 |
Senate Author: Van de Putte |
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Effective: 5-15-07 |
House Sponsor: Haggerty et al. |
Senate Bill 1580 amends the Government Code to require the Texas Board of Criminal Justice to award a contract to a single private vendor to provide pay telephone services to eligible inmates by September 1, 2008. Mandatory contract provisions are set forth, including provisions that the vendor will be responsible for installing, operating, and maintaining the service without any cost to the state and must pay the Texas Department of Criminal Justice a commission of not less than 40 percent of the gross revenue received from the use of the service. The department is required to transfer 50 percent of all commissions received from the vendor to the compensation to victims of crime fund and the other 50 percent to the general revenue fund, except that the first $10 million of the commissions collected each year must go to the compensation to victims of crime fund. The department is required to adopt policies governing the use of the service by inmates, ensure that an inmate is allowed to communicate only with persons on a pre-approved list, and maintain recordings of inmate conversations for law enforcement and security purposes. The department is also required to ensure that no confidential attorney-client communication is monitored or recorded.