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.