By: Combs H.B. No. 1301
73R5193 GWK-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to participation in county jail work programs by certain
1-3 convicted felons.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Article 43.10, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
1-6 amended to read as follows:
1-7 Art. 43.10. TO DO MANUAL LABOR. (a) Where the punishment
1-8 assessed in a conviction for misdemeanor is confinement in jail for
1-9 more than one day, or where in such conviction the punishment is
1-10 assessed only at a pecuniary fine and the party so convicted is
1-11 unable to pay the fine and costs adjudged against him, or where the
1-12 party convicted is required to serve a period of confinement as a
1-13 condition of probation, or where the party is sentenced to
1-14 confinement in jail for a felony, or where the party is sentenced
1-15 to confinement in the institutional division of the Texas
1-16 Department of Criminal Justice but is confined in jail, the party
1-17 <convicted or required to serve the period of confinement> shall be
1-18 required to do manual labor in accordance with the provisions of
1-19 this Article under the following rules and regulations:
1-20 1. Each commissioners court may provide for the
1-21 erection of a workhouse and the establishment of a county farm in
1-22 connection therewith for the purpose of utilizing the labor of said
1-23 parties so convicted or required to serve a period of confinement;
1-24 2. Such farms and workhouses shall be under the
2-1 control and management of the sheriff, and the sheriff may adopt
2-2 such rules and regulations not inconsistent with the rules and
2-3 regulations of the <Texas> Commission on Jail Standards and with
2-4 the laws as the sheriff deems necessary;
2-5 3. Such overseers and guards may be employed by the
2-6 sheriff under the authority of the commissioners court as may be
2-7 necessary to prevent escapes and to enforce such labor, and they
2-8 shall be paid out of the county treasury such compensation as the
2-9 commissioners court may prescribe;
2-10 4. They shall be put to labor upon public works,
2-11 including public works for a political subdivision located in whole
2-12 or in part in the county;
2-13 5. One who from age, disease, or other physical or
2-14 mental disability is unable to do manual labor shall not be
2-15 required to work. His inability to do manual labor may be
2-16 determined by a physician appointed for that purpose by the county
2-17 judge or the commissioners court, who shall be paid for such
2-18 service such compensation as said court may allow; and
2-19 6. For each day of manual labor, in addition to any
2-20 other credits allowed by law, a prisoner is entitled to have one
2-21 day deducted from each sentence or period of confinement he is
2-22 serving. The deduction authorized by this article, when combined
2-23 with the deduction required by Article 42.10 of this code<, Code of
2-24 Criminal Procedure,> may not exceed two-thirds (2/3) of the
2-25 sentence or period of confinement.
2-26 (b) A sheriff, employee of a sheriff's department, county
2-27 commissioner, county employee, county judge, and employee of a
3-1 community corrections and supervision department, restitution
3-2 center, or officer or employee of a political subdivision other
3-3 than a county is not liable for damages arising from an act or
3-4 failure to act in connection with manual labor performed by an
3-5 inmate pursuant to this article if the act or failure to act:
3-6 (1) was performed pursuant to court-ordered
3-7 confinement <court order>; and
3-8 (2) was not intentional, wilfully or wantonly
3-9 negligent, or performed with conscious indifference or reckless
3-10 disregard for the safety of others.
3-11 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
3-12 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-13 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-14 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-15 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-16 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-17 passage, and it is so enacted.