By Gray                                               H.B. No. 2502
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the disposition of inmates' pay and moneys deposited in
    1-3  an inmate trust fund.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 497.004, Government Code,
    1-6  is amended to read as follows:
    1-7        (b)  The board may develop and administer an incentive pay
    1-8  scale for inmates confined in the institutional division who
    1-9  participate in the prison industries program.  The program may be
   1-10  financed through contributions donated for this purpose by private
   1-11  businesses contracting with the institutional division.  The
   1-12  institutional division shall apportion pay earned by an inmate
   1-13  under this subchapter to the following persons and entities, in
   1-14  amounts determined at the discretion of the division:
   1-15              (1)  persons to whom the inmate has been ordered by a
   1-16  court to pay restitution;
   1-17              (2)  the compensation to victims of crime fund and the
   1-18  victims of crime auxiliary fund created by Article 56.54, Code of
   1-19  Criminal Procedure;
   1-20              (3)  the inmate's family and dependents;
   1-21              (4) <(3)>  the state, as reimbursement for the cost of
   1-22  the inmate's confinement; and
   1-23              (5) <(4)  the compensation to victims of crime fund
    2-1  created by Section 14, Crime Victims Compensation Act (Article
    2-2  8309-1, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes);> the inmate's trust fund.
    2-3        SECTION 2.  Subsection (e), Section 501.014, Government Code,
    2-4  is amended to read as follows:
    2-5        (e)  On notification by a court, the director of the
    2-6  institutional division shall withdraw from an inmate's trust fund
    2-7  any amount the inmate is ordered to pay by order of the court for
    2-8  restitution, child support, reimbursement, <restitution,> fines,
    2-9  and court costs.  The director shall make a payment under this
   2-10  subsection as ordered by the court to either the court or the party
   2-11  specified in the court order.  The director, the institutional
   2-12  division, and the department are not liable for withdrawing or
   2-13  failing to withdraw money or making payments or failing to make
   2-14  payments under this subsection.  The director shall make
   2-15  withdrawals and payments from an inmate's trust fund under this
   2-16  subsection according to the following schedule of priorities:
   2-17              (1)  as payment in full for all orders for restitution;
   2-18              (2) <(1)>  as payment in full for all orders for child
   2-19  support;
   2-20              (3)  as payment in full for all orders for
   2-21  reimbursement to the victims of crime compensation fund and the
   2-22  victims of crime auxiliary fund; <(2)  as payment in full for all
   2-23  orders for restitution;>
   2-24              (4) <(3)>  as payment in full for all orders for fines;
   2-25  and
    3-1              (5) <(4)>  as payment in full for all orders for court
    3-2  costs.
    3-3        SECTION 3.  EFFECTIVE DATE.  This Act takes effect on
    3-4  September 1, 1995.
    3-5        SECTION 4.  EMERGENCY.  The importance of this legislation
    3-6  and the crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-7  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-8  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-9  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   3-10  and it is so enacted.