By:  Hudson                                            H.B. No. 516
       73R3177 GWK-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to conjugal visitation of inmates in the institutional
    1-3  division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 501, Government Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding Section 501.018 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 501.018.  CONJUGAL VISITS.   (a)  The board shall adopt
    1-8  rules  governing eligibility of married inmates confined in the
    1-9  institutional division of the department to receive private,
   1-10  conjugal visits in a division facility from the inmate's spouse.
   1-11  The board shall also adopt rules governing procedures for the
   1-12  visits.
   1-13        (b)  Rules adopted under this section may require an inmate
   1-14  requesting a conjugal visit to submit proof of the inmate's
   1-15  marriage to the visitor in the form of:
   1-16              (1)  a marriage license or certificate indicating that
   1-17  a marriage ceremony was conducted and executed as provided by the
   1-18  law of the state of issuance; or
   1-19              (2)  evidence of the existence of an informal or
   1-20  common-law marriage in a state the law of which recognizes informal
   1-21  or common-law marriages.
   1-22        (c)  If an inmate requests a conjugal visit from a person who
   1-23  the inmate claims is the inmate's spouse in an informal marriage
   1-24  under Texas law, the institutional division may require proof of
    2-1  the informal marriage in the manner provided by Section 1.91,
    2-2  Family Code.
    2-3        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-4  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-5  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-6  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-7  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-8  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-9  passage, and it is so enacted.