By Conley                                              H.B. No. 514
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the employment of inmates of the institutional division
    1-3  of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice by contractors
    1-4  constructing institutional division facilities.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Subchapter E, Chapter 497, Government Code, is
    1-7  amended by adding Section 497.097 to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 497.097.  USE OF INMATE LABOR BY CONTRACTORS.  (a)  The
    1-9  board, by rule, may permit the voluntary employment of inmates by a
   1-10  contractor operating under a construction contract with the board.
   1-11        (b)  An inmate employed by a contractor under this section
   1-12  may not leave the premises of the facility or unit of the
   1-13  institutional  division to which the inmate is assigned.
   1-14        (c)  A contractor employing an inmate under this section
   1-15  shall pay the inmate the federal hourly minimum wage.
   1-16        (d)  The salary of an inmate employed under this section
   1-17  shall be paid to the director of the institutional division and
   1-18  distributed as follows:
   1-19              (1)  if the inmate has children who are dependents of
   1-20  the spouse or the inmate, other dependent family members, or a
   1-21  spouse, one-half of the salary to those individuals and one-half to
   1-22  the compensation to victims of crime fund in the state treasury
   1-23  created under Article 56.54, Code of Criminal Procedure; or
   1-24              (2)  if the inmate has no dependent or spouse, to the
    2-1  compensation to victims of crime fund described by Subdivision (1).
    2-2        (e)  A contractor operating under a construction contract
    2-3  with the board, who in bidding for the contract specified the ratio
    2-4  between inmate laborers and general population laborers, may not,
    2-5  subsequent to having been awarded the contract, change that ratio
    2-6  without the express written consent of the board.
    2-7        (f)  A contractor employing an inmate under this section
    2-8  shall maintain a log indicating the number of hours worked each
    2-9  week by the inmate and the difference between the wage paid the
   2-10  inmate and the wage the contractor specified in the bid that the
   2-11  contractor would pay for the same type of work.  The department at
   2-12  any time may require the contractor to provide the department with
   2-13  a copy of the log. On completion of the contract, the contractor
   2-14  shall multiply the number of hours worked by the inmate times the
   2-15  difference between the minimum wage and the wage specified in the
   2-16  bid, and remit that amount to the department.
   2-17        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-18  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-19  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-20  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-21  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-22  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-23  passage, and it is so enacted.