By: Whitmire S.B. No. 724
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to the duties of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice and
1-2 the Board of Pardons and Paroles with respect to limiting the
1-3 number of prisoners that may be released on parole and mandatory
1-4 supervision to a county.
1-5 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-6 SECTION 1. Article 42.18, Section 7(a), Code of Criminal
1-7 Procedure, is amended to read as follows:
1-8 "Sec. 7. (a) The members of the board shall:
1-9 (1) determine under Sections 8(a)-(f) of this article
1-10 which prisoners are to be released on parole;
1-11 (2) determine under Sections 8(g) and (j) of this
1-12 article conditions of parole and mandatory supervision;
1-13 (3) perform the constitutional duties imposed on the
1-14 board by Article IV, Section 11, of the Texas Constitution;
1-15 (4) determine which prisoners may be released from
1-16 supervision and reporting under Section 15 of this article; <and>
1-17 (5) determine under Section 14 of this article the
1-18 revocation of parole and mandatory supervision; and
1-19 (6) determine which county a prisoner is released to
1-20 on parole or mandatory supervision in order to insure that for any
1-21 given month the percentage of the total number of prisoners
1-22 released from the institutional division to a county does not
1-23 exceed the percentage of the total number of prisoners admitted to
2-1 the institutional division from that county for the previous month.
2-2 SECTION 2. Section 492.013, Government Code, is amended by
2-3 adding a new Subdivision (h) to read as follows:
2-4 "(h) The board shall develop and implement policies for the
2-5 Board of Pardons and Paroles and the pardons and paroles division
2-6 to insure that for any given month the percentage of the total
2-7 number of prisoners released on parole or mandatory supervision
2-8 from the institutional division to a county does not exceed the
2-9 percentage of the total number of prisoners received by the
2-10 institutional division from that county for the previous month.
2-11 The board shall prepare a monthly report showing the total number
2-12 of prisoners released on parole or mandatory supervision to each
2-13 county, the total number of prisoners admitted to the institutional
2-14 division from each county for the previous month, and the
2-15 corresponding percentages of the state-wide totals pertaining to
2-16 each county."
2-17 SECTION 3. The Texas Board of Criminal Justice shall develop
2-18 and implement the policies and procedures required by Section 2 not
2-19 later than January 1, 1994.
2-20 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
2-21 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-22 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-23 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-24 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-25 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-1 passage, and it is so enacted.