By Shapiro                                              S.B. No. 46
       74R1069 PEP-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to requiring victim notification when an inmate escapes
    1-3  from a facility operated by the institutional division of the Texas
    1-4  Department of Criminal Justice.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Chapter 56, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-7  amended by adding Article 56.12 to read as follows:
    1-8        Art. 56.12.  NOTIFICATION OF ESCAPE.  (a)  The institutional
    1-9  division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shall
   1-10  immediately notify the victim of an offense, the victim's guardian,
   1-11  or the victim's close relative, if the victim is deceased, whenever
   1-12  the offender escapes from a facility operated by the institutional
   1-13  division, if the victim, victim's guardian, or victim's close
   1-14  relative has notified the institutional division as provided by
   1-15  Subsection (b).
   1-16        (b)  It is the responsibility of the victim, guardian, or
   1-17  close relative desiring notification of an offender's escape to
   1-18  notify the institutional division of the Texas Department of
   1-19  Criminal Justice of the desire for notification and any change of
   1-20  address.
   1-21        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-22  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-23  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-24  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-1  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-2  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-3  passage, and it is so enacted.