By Hunter of Nueces                                   H.B. No. 2679
          Substitute the following for H.B. No. 2679:
          By Hunter of Nueces                               C.S.H.B. No. 2679
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to county jail work release programs.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Article 42.034, Texas Code of Criminal Procedure
    1-5  is amended to read as follows:
    1-6        Art. 42.034.  County Jail Work Release Programs.  (a)  If
    1-7  jail time has been awarded to a person sentenced for a misdemeanor
    1-8  or sentenced to confinement in the county jail for a felony, the
    1-9  trial judge at the time of pronouncement of sentence or at any time
   1-10  while the defendant is serving the sentence, within in the judge's
   1-11  discretion the ends of justice would best be served, may permit the
   1-12  defendant to served an alternate term for the same period of time
   1-13  in the county jail work release program of the county in which the
   1-14  offense occurred.  An inmate who participates in a county jail work
   1-15  release program  is not an employee of the county.
   1-16        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   1-17        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-18  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-19  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-20  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-21  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.