By:  Wilson                                           H.B. No. 1204
       73R5620 GWK-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to a prohibition against the use of inmates of the
    1-3  institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
    1-4  in programs that train dogs to track or capture inmates.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 501, Government Code, is
    1-7  amended by adding Section 501.018 to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 501.018.  INMATE USE IN DOG TRAINING PROHIBITED.  A
    1-9  member of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice or an employee of the
   1-10  institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
   1-11  may not require or permit an inmate to participate in any program
   1-12  or exercise intended to train a dog to track or capture inmates
   1-13  unless the inmate is accompanied by a member of the board who
   1-14  participates in the program or exercise in the same role as the
   1-15  inmate.
   1-16        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-17  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-18  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-19  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-20  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-21  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-22  passage, and it is so enacted.