By Hightower H.B. No. 1816
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the duties of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice and
1-3 the Board of Pardons and Paroles with respect to limiting the
1-4 number of prisoners that may be released on parole and mandatory
1-5 supervision to a county.
1-6 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-7 SECTION 1. Article 42.18, Section 7(a), Code of Criminal
1-8 Procedure, is amended to read as follows:
1-9 "Sec. 7. (a) The members of the board shall:
1-10 (1) determine under Sections 8(a)-(f) of this article
1-11 which prisoners are to be released on parole;
1-12 (2) determine under Sections 8(g) and (j) of this
1-13 article conditions of parole and mandatory supervision;
1-14 (3) perform the constitutional duties imposed on the
1-15 board by Article IV, Section 11, of the Texas Constitution;
1-16 (4) determine which prisoners may be released from
1-17 supervision and reporting under Section 15 of this article; <and>
1-18 (5) determine under Section 14 of this article the
1-19 revocation of parole and mandatory supervision; and
1-20 (6) determine which county a prisoner is released to
1-21 on parole or mandatory supervision in order to insure that for any
1-22 given month the percentage of the total number of prisoners
1-23 released from the institutional division to a county does not
2-1 exceed the percentage of the total number of prisoners admitted to
2-2 the institutional division from that county for the previous
2-3 month."
2-4 SECTION 2. Section 492.013, Government Code, is amended by
2-5 adding a new subdivision (h) to read as follows:
2-6 "(h) The board shall develop and implement policies for the
2-7 Board of Pardons and Paroles and the pardons and paroles division
2-8 to insure that for any given month the percentage of the total
2-9 number of prisoners released on parole or mandatory supervision
2-10 from the institutional division to a county does not exceed the
2-11 percentage of the total number of prisoners received by the
2-12 institutional division from that county for the previous month.
2-13 The board shall prepare a monthly report showing the total number
2-14 of prisoners released on parole or mandatory supervision to each
2-15 county, the total number of prisoners admitted to the institutional
2-16 division from each county for the previous month, and the
2-17 corresponding percentages of the state-wide totals pertaining to
2-18 each county."
2-19 SECTION 3. The Texas Board of Criminal Justice shall develop
2-20 and implement the policies and procedures required by Section 2 not
2-21 later than January 1, 1994.
2-22 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
2-23 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-24 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-25 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-1 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-2 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-3 passage, and it is so enacted.