By Zaffirini                                           S.B. No. 223
       74R1853 GWK-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to providing notice to victims of domestic violence before
    1-3  releasing the offender on bail.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Article 17.291, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-6  amended by adding Subsection (c) to read as follows:
    1-7        (c)  Before releasing on bail a person arrested or held
    1-8  without a warrant in the prevention of family violence, the agency
    1-9  arresting or holding the person shall make a reasonable attempt to
   1-10  give personal notice of the imminent release to the victim of the
   1-11  alleged offense or to another person designated by the victim to
   1-12  receive the notice.
   1-13        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-14  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-15  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-16  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-17  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-18  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-19  passage, and it is so enacted.