Enrolled Bill Summary

            Senate Bill 365 amends the Government Code to continue the Texas Board of Criminal Justice and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice until September 1, 2011. The act authorizes the executive director, with board approval, to establish and reorganize divisions within the department. It requires the board and the Board of Pardons and Paroles Policy Board to jointly review all rules, policies, and procedures that relate to the parole process to produce more consistent and cohesive parole policies. The act authorizes the board to enter into contracts with private vendors and county commissioners courts for up to 4,580 beds rather than 4,080 beds.

            The act directs the department to give preference, when entering into contracts for inmate labor with nonprofit organizations, to organizations that will use the inmate labor in a manner that increases the inmates' vocational skills. The act directs the department to require an inmate, a defendant, or a releasee to participate in a work program to the extent a person is physically and mentally capable of working and authorizes the department to waive the work requirement under certain circumstances. It authorizes the department to administer an incentive pay scale program for inmates required to work in agricultural, industrial, or other work programs. The act requires the department to give priority to work program participants closest to release when making marketable job skills assignments. It also requires the department, rather than the institutional division, to establish a record that documents an inmate's, a defendant's, or a releasee's vocational training and job performance and to provide a copy of that work record to the person on release. The act authorizes the department to revise funding sources for the community supervision and corrections department.

            The act requires the department to develop a system to allow inmates to resolve conflicts over the amount of time-served credits earned. The act prohibits an inmate from filing a writ of habeas corpus relating to a time-served credit dispute until the inmate has received either a written decision concerning the credits from the highest authority in the resolution system or, if the inmate has not received a final written notice, within 180 days of filing a complaint. The waiting period does not apply to inmates who, according to the department's computations, are within 180 days of their parole date, date of release on mandatory supervision, or date of discharge.

            Senate Bill 365 clarifies that the purpose of the Texas Correctional Industries is to provide inmates with marketable job skills to help reduce recidivism through a coordinated program of job skills training, documenting inmate work history, and access to resources provided by Project RIO and the Texas Workforce Commission and to reduce department costs by providing products and articles for sale on a for-profit basis. The act allows Texas Correctional Industries to use money appropriated to the office in amounts corresponding to the sale of its articles and products to make purchases and pay necessary expenses for the support of the program. It increases the number of inmates who may participate in a private business contract for inmate labor from 250 to 500.

            The act restructures the Private Sector Prison Industries Oversight Authority by increasing the number of public members from three to four and requiring the governor to appoint an employer liaison. The act requires the authority to adopt rules to determine whether a prison industries program would cause the loss of existing jobs provided by an employer in Texas. It increases the number of inmates who may participate in the private sector prison industries programs from 1,500 to 2,000.

            The act requires the community justice assistance division to conduct a feasibility study to determine whether the documentation prepared by a community justice council is excessive or redundant and to suggest a streamlined process to reduce duplication of efforts.

            The act amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to make it discretionary rather than mandatory for a judge to order a postsentence report from an officer for a felony case. It requires a judge to order an inmate, as a condition of community supervision, to pay a residential aftercare fee when released from a substance abuse treatment facility.

            Senate Bill 365 amends the Labor Code to provide workers' compensation coverage to inmates who participate in the Texas Correctional Industries contract work program. It amends the Education Code to allow an inmate who has a high school diploma to participate in a Windham School District program or service if space is available.

            The act amends the Health and Safety Code to increase the membership of the Texas Council on Offenders with Mental Impairments from 29 to 30. It redefines a special needs offender and expands the list of information that may be shared between agencies regarding these offenders. The act redefines "agency" as a specified criminal justice, human services, or education entity or a person with an agency relationship or contract with one of the specified entities. The act requires the council to conduct a study on strategies for reducing the use of a county jail as a place to provide mental health treatment to persons with mental illnesses.

            Senate Bill 365 amends the Health and Safety Code to establish a procedure for an involuntary civil commitment of a sexually violent predator to outpatient treatment and supervision. The act requires the executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the commissioner of the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation to establish a multidisciplinary team to determine whether a person suffers from a behavioral abnormality that makes the person likely to engage in a predatory act of sexual violence. If it is determined that a person suffers from a behavioral abnormality, the act establishes due process procedures to conduct a trial to determine the predator status and to commit the person for outpatient treatment until the person's behavioral abnormality has changed to the extent that the person is no longer likely to engage in a predatory act of sexual violence. The act authorizes a judge to order a person found to be a predator to comply with certain requirements to ensure the person's compliance with treatment and supervision and to protect the community and makes violation of these requirements a third degree felony. The act establishes procedures for a biennial examination and review of the status of the committed person and for the committed person to petition for release.