By Nixon                                              H.B. No. 1538
       74R6120 GWK-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the availability to law enforcement agencies of certain
    1-3  information relating to inmates in the institutional division of
    1-4  the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Section 18, Article 42.18, Code of Criminal
    1-7  Procedure, is amended to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 18.  Confidential Information.  All information obtained
    1-9  and maintained in connection with inmates of the institutional
   1-10  division subject to parole, release to mandatory supervision, or
   1-11  executive clemency, or individuals who may be on mandatory
   1-12  supervision or parole and under the supervision of the pardons and
   1-13  paroles division, or persons directly identified in any proposed
   1-14  plan of release for a prisoner, including victim impact statements,
   1-15  lists of inmates eligible for parole, and inmates' arrest records,
   1-16  shall be confidential and privileged information and shall not be
   1-17  subject to public inspection; provided, however, that all such
   1-18  information shall be available to law enforcement agencies, the
   1-19  governor, the members of the board, and the Criminal Justice Policy
   1-20  Council to perform its duties under Section 413.021, Government
   1-21  Code, upon request.  It is further provided that statistical and
   1-22  general information respecting the parole and mandatory supervision
   1-23  program and system, including the names of paroled prisoners,
   1-24  prisoners released to mandatory supervision, and data recorded in
    2-1  connection with parole and mandatory supervision services, shall be
    2-2  subject to public inspection at any reasonable time.
    2-3        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-4  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-5  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-6  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-7  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-8  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-9  passage, and it is so enacted.