BILL ANALYSIS H.B. 253 By: Alvarado (Whitmire) Criminal Justice 05-22-95 Senate Committee Report (Unamended) BACKGROUND Texas parole officers sometimes have limited information on a parolees' criminal background. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice provides parole officers with a case summary prepared by Transitional Planning which includes the offense of record, time served, offender's address upon release, substance abuse data, employment information, criminal history and facts surrounding the offense. The institutional division receives several documents that must be received before they will accept the inmate from a county. Currently, the institutional division is not required to forward this information with an inmate who is released on community supervision to the pardons and paroles division. PURPOSE As proposed, H.B. 253 requires the institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to provide the pardons and paroles division copies of documents received including pre-sentence investigation reports, criminal history rap sheets, victim impact statements and other necessary information. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 8(d), Article 42.09, Code of Criminal Procedure, to require the institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to make documents received under Subsections (a) and (c) available to the pardons and paroles division on the request of the pardons and paroles division and, on release of a defendant on parole to mandatory supervision, to immediately provide the pardons and paroles division with copies of documents received under Subsection (a). Requires the pardons and paroles division to provided to the parole officer appointed to supervise the defendant a comprehensive summary of the information contained in the documents referenced in this section not later than the 14th day after the date of the defendant's release. Requires the summary to include a current photograph of the defendant and a complete set of the defendants fingerprints. Requires the photograph and fingerprints, upon written request from the county sheriff, to be filed with sheriff of the county to which the parolee is assigned if that county is not the county from which the parolee was sentenced. SECTION 2. Effective date: September 1, 1995. SECTION 3. Emergency clause.