H.B. No. 1056
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the creation of county jail industries programs and the
1-3 use of inmates confined in county jails for public works, public
1-4 improvements, and public maintenance projects.
1-5 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-6 SECTION 1. Chapter 351, Local Government Code, is amended by
1-7 adding Subchapter I to read as follows:
1-8 SUBCHAPTER I. COUNTY JAIL INDUSTRIES PROGRAM
1-9 Sec. 351.201. COUNTY JAIL INDUSTRIES PROGRAM. (a) A
1-10 commissioners court by order may establish a county jail industries
1-11 program. The sheriff may allow inmate participation in the county
1-12 jail industries program in carrying out his constitutional and
1-13 statutory duties.
1-14 (b) The purposes for which a county jail industries program
1-15 may be established are to:
1-16 (1) provide adequate, regular, and suitable employment
1-17 for the vocational training of inmates;
1-18 (2) reimburse the county for expenses caused by the
1-19 crimes of inmates and the cost of their confinement; or
1-20 (3) provide for the distribution of articles and
1-21 products produced under this subchapter to:
1-22 (A) offices of the county and offices of
1-23 political subdivisions located in whole or in part in the county;
1-24 and
2-1 (B) nonprofit organizations that provide
2-2 services to the general public and enhance social welfare and the
2-3 general well-being of the community.
2-4 (c) A commissioners court, in an order establishing a county
2-5 jail industries program, shall, with the approval of the sheriff:
2-6 (1) designate the county official or officials
2-7 responsible for management of the program; and
2-8 (2) designate the county official or officials
2-9 responsible for determining which inmates are allowed to
2-10 participate in a county jail industries program.
2-11 (d) An order of a commissioners court establishing a county
2-12 jail industries program, though not limited to, may provide for any
2-13 of the following:
2-14 (1) an advisory committee;
2-15 (2) the priorities under which the county jail
2-16 industries program is to be administered;
2-17 (3) procedures to determine the articles and products
2-18 to be produced under this subchapter;
2-19 (4) procedures to determine the sales price of
2-20 articles and products produced under this subchapter; and
2-21 (5) procedures for the development of specifications
2-22 for articles and products produced under this subchapter.
2-23 (e) A county jail industries program may be operated at the
2-24 county jail, workfarm, or workhouse or at any other suitable
2-25 location.
2-26 (f) An inmate does not have a right to participate in a
2-27 county jail industries program, and neither the sheriff, county
3-1 judge, or commissioners nor any other county official or employee
3-2 may be held liable for failing to provide a county jail industries
3-3 program.
3-4 Sec. 351.202. REVENUE. Money received from the operation of
3-5 a county jail industries program shall be deposited in the general
3-6 revenue fund of the county to be used as reimbursement for the cost
3-7 of inmate confinement. The cost to a county for an inmate's
3-8 participation in a county jail industries program is considered to
3-9 be a part of the cost of confinement of the inmate.
3-10 SECTION 2. Article 43.09, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
3-11 amended by amending Subsections (a) and (l) to read as follows:
3-12 (a) When a defendant is convicted of a misdemeanor and his
3-13 punishment is assessed at a pecuniary fine or is confined in a jail
3-14 after conviction of a felony for which a fine is imposed, if he is
3-15 unable to pay the fine and costs adjudged against him, he may for
3-16 such time as will satisfy the judgment be put to work in the county
3-17 jail industries program, in the workhouse, or on the county farm,
3-18 or public improvements and maintenance projects of the county or a
3-19 political subdivision located in whole or in part in the county, as
3-20 provided in the succeeding Article; or if there be no such county
3-21 jail industries program, workhouse, farm, or improvements and
3-22 maintenance projects, he shall be imprisoned in jail for a
3-23 sufficient length of time to discharge the full amount of fine and
3-24 costs adjudged against him; rating such imprisonment at $50 for
3-25 each day and rating such labor at $50 for each day; provided,
3-26 however, that the defendant may pay the pecuniary fine assessed
3-27 against him at any time while he is serving at work in the county
4-1 jail industries program, in the workhouse, or on the county farm,
4-2 or on the public improvements and maintenance projects of the
4-3 county or a political subdivision located in whole or in part in
4-4 the county, or while he is serving his jail sentence, and in such
4-5 instances he shall be entitled to the credit he has earned under
4-6 this subsection during the time that he has served and he shall
4-7 only be required to pay his balance of the pecuniary fine assessed
4-8 against him. A defendant who performs labor under this article
4-9 during a day in which he is imprisoned is entitled to both the
4-10 credit for imprisonment and the credit for labor provided by this
4-11 article.
4-12 (l) A sheriff, employee of a sheriff's department, county
4-13 commissioner, county employee, county judge, an employee of a
4-14 community corrections and supervision department, restitution
4-15 center, or officer or employee of a political subdivision other
4-16 than a county is not liable for damages arising from an act or
4-17 failure to act in connection with manual labor performed by an
4-18 inmate pursuant to this article if the act or failure to act:
4-19 (1) was performed pursuant to confinement or other
4-20 court order; and
4-21 (2) was not intentional, wilfully or wantonly
4-22 negligent, or performed with conscious indifference or reckless
4-23 disregard for the safety of others.
4-24 SECTION 3. Article 43.10, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
4-25 amended to read as follows:
4-26 Art. 43.10. TO DO MANUAL LABOR. (a) Where the punishment
4-27 assessed in a conviction for misdemeanor is confinement in jail for
5-1 more than one day, or where in such conviction the punishment is
5-2 assessed only at a pecuniary fine and the party so convicted is
5-3 unable to pay the fine and costs adjudged against him, or where the
5-4 party convicted is required to serve a period of confinement as a
5-5 condition of probation, or where the party is sentenced to jail for
5-6 a felony or is confined in jail after conviction of a felony, the
5-7 party convicted or required to serve the period of confinement
5-8 shall be required to work in the county jail industries program or
5-9 shall be required to do manual labor in accordance with the
5-10 provisions of this Article under the following rules and
5-11 regulations:
5-12 1. Each commissioners court may provide for the
5-13 erection of a workhouse and the establishment of a county farm in
5-14 connection therewith for the purpose of utilizing the labor of said
5-15 parties so convicted or required to serve a period of confinement;
5-16 2. Such farms and workhouses shall be under the
5-17 control and management of the sheriff, and the sheriff may adopt
5-18 such rules and regulations not inconsistent with the rules and
5-19 regulations of the <Texas> Commission on Jail Standards and with
5-20 the laws as the sheriff deems necessary;
5-21 3. Such overseers and guards may be employed by the
5-22 sheriff under the authority of the commissioners court as may be
5-23 necessary to prevent escapes and to enforce such labor, and they
5-24 shall be paid out of the county treasury such compensation as the
5-25 commissioners court may prescribe;
5-26 4. They shall be put to labor upon public works and
5-27 maintenance projects, including public works and maintenance
6-1 projects for a political subdivision located in whole or in part in
6-2 the county;
6-3 5. One who from age, disease, or other physical or
6-4 mental disability is unable to do manual labor shall not be
6-5 required to work. His inability to do manual labor may be
6-6 determined by a physician appointed for that purpose by the county
6-7 judge or the commissioners court, who shall be paid for such
6-8 service such compensation as said court may allow; and
6-9 6. For each day of manual labor, in addition to any
6-10 other credits allowed by law, a prisoner is entitled to have one
6-11 day deducted from each sentence or period of confinement he is
6-12 serving. The deduction authorized by this article, when combined
6-13 with the deduction required by Article 42.10 of this code<, Code of
6-14 Criminal Procedure>, may not exceed two-thirds (2/3) of the
6-15 sentence or period of confinement.
6-16 (b) A sheriff, employee of a sheriff's department, county
6-17 commissioner, county employee, county judge, and employee of a
6-18 community corrections and supervision department, restitution
6-19 center, or officer or employee of a political subdivision other
6-20 than a county is not liable for damages arising from an act or
6-21 failure to act in connection with manual labor performed by an
6-22 inmate pursuant to this article if the act or failure to act:
6-23 (1) was performed pursuant to court-ordered
6-24 confinement <court order>; and
6-25 (2) was not intentional, wilfully or wantonly
6-26 negligent, or performed with conscious indifference or reckless
6-27 disregard for the safety of others.
7-1 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
7-2 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
7-3 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
7-4 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
7-5 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
7-6 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
7-7 passage, and it is so enacted.