H.B. No. 864
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to work programs for inmates confined in county jail
1-3 awaiting transfer to the institutional division of the Texas
1-4 Department of Criminal Justice.
1-5 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-6 SECTION 1. Article 43.101, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
1-7 amended to read as follows:
1-8 Art. 43.101. VOLUNTARY WORK BY PRETRIAL DETAINEES AND
1-9 DEFENDANTS AWAITING TRANSFER. (a) A defendant confined in county
1-10 jail awaiting trial or awaiting transfer to the institutional
1-11 division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice following
1-12 conviction or revocation of probation, parole, or mandatory
1-13 supervision may volunteer to participate in any work program
1-14 operated by the sheriff that uses the labor of convicted
1-15 misdemeanants <defendants>.
1-16 (b) The sheriff may accept a defendant as a volunteer under
1-17 Subsection (a) of this article <section> if the defendant is not
1-18 awaiting trial for or convicted of an offense involving violence,
1-19 and if the sheriff determines that the inmate has not engaged
1-20 previously in violent conduct and does not pose a security risk to
1-21 the general public if allowed to participate in the work program.
1-22 (c) A sheriff, employee of a sheriff's department, county
1-23 commissioner, county employee, or county judge is not liable for
1-24 damages arising from an act or failure to act in connection with
2-1 manual labor performed by an inmate under this article if the act
2-2 or failure to act was not intentional, wilfully or wantonly
2-3 negligent, or performed with conscious indifference or reckless
2-4 disregard for the safety of others <The limitations on liability of
2-5 a county for damages suffered by an inmate participating in a work
2-6 program operated by the sheriff apply to a defendant who volunteers
2-7 under Subsection (a) of this article in the same manner as if the
2-8 inmate were participating in the program after conviction of an
2-9 offense>.
2-10 SECTION 2. Section 498.003(e), Government Code, is amended
2-11 to read as follows:
2-12 (e) If a person confined in a county jail is transferred to
2-13 the institutional division, the director of the institutional
2-14 division shall award good conduct time to the person up to an
2-15 amount equal to that which the person could have accrued during the
2-16 period of imprisonment in the county jail if instead the person had
2-17 been incarcerated in the division during that period. The director
2-18 of the institutional division shall award good conduct time to a
2-19 defendant for diligent participation in a voluntary work program
2-20 operated by a sheriff under Article 43.101, Code of Criminal
2-21 Procedure, in the same manner as if the inmate had diligently
2-22 participated in an industrial program or other work program
2-23 provided to inmates by the institutional division. The sheriff of
2-24 each county shall have attached a certification of the number of
2-25 days each inmate diligently participated in the volunteer work
2-26 program operated by the sheriff under Article 43.101, Code of
2-27 Criminal Procedure.
3-1 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
3-2 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-3 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-4 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-5 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-6 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-7 passage, and it is so enacted.