By Gray                                               H.B. No. 2503
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to prison inmate liability for destruction of property at
    1-3  the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subsections (b), (d), and (e), Section 500.002,
    1-6  Government Code, are amended to read as follows:
    1-7        (b)  The institutional division shall establish a hearing
    1-8  procedure, giving consideration to the due process rights of
    1-9  inmates, for the adjudication of claims for property damage under
   1-10  this section <Article>.  Damages may be awarded to the department
   1-11  only after a hearing and may not exceed the value of the property
   1-12  damaged.
   1-13        (d)  An inmate may appeal a final decision <ruling following
   1-14  a hearing> under this section after exhausting administrative
   1-15  remedies by filing a petition seeking judicial review <an appeal>
   1-16  in a district court in the county in which the alleged damages
   1-17  occurred.  On judicial review <appeal> the district court shall
   1-18  follow the rules governing judicial review of contested cases under
   1-19  Sections 2001.171-.178, Government Code <Section 19, Administrative
   1-20  Procedure and Texas Register Act (Article 6252-13a, Vernon's Texas
   1-21  Civil Statutes)>. Appeals may be taken from the district court as
   1-22  in other cases.
   1-23        (e)  If an inmate fails to file a petition seeking judicial
    2-1  review of <appeal> an adverse decision within 60 days after
    2-2  exhausting all administrative remedies available to challenge a
    2-3  final decision <the date of a hearing under Subsection (b)>, the
    2-4  inmate is jurisdictionally barred from proceeding.
    2-5        SECTION 2.  SEVERABILITY.  If any section, sentence, clause,
    2-6  or part of this Act shall, for any reason, be held invalid, such
    2-7  invalidity shall not affect the remaining portions of the Act, and
    2-8  it is hereby declared to be the intention of this legislature to
    2-9  have passed each section, sentence, clause, or part irrespective of
   2-10  the fact that any other section, sentence, clause, or part may be
   2-11  declared invalid.
   2-12        SECTION 3.  The changes in law made by this Act apply only to
   2-13  a cause of action that accrues on or after the effective date of
   2-14  this article.  A cause of action that accrues before the effective
   2-15  date of this article is governed by the law in effect on the date
   2-16  the cause of action accrues, and that law is continued in effect
   2-17  for this purpose.
   2-18        SECTION 4.  EFFECTIVE DATE.  This Act takes effect on
   2-19  September 1, 1995.
   2-20        SECTION 5.  EMERGENCY.  The importance of this legislation
   2-21  and the 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 bill to be read on three several days
   2-24  in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended, and
   2-25  it is so enacted.