By Whitmire                                            S.B. No. 302
       74R4292 GWK-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to a system of sanctions for inmates of the institutional
    1-3  division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice who file
    1-4  frivolous suits or take bad faith actions in a suit.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Chapter 500, Government Code, is amended by
    1-7  adding Section 500.004 to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 500.004.  SANCTIONS FOR FRIVOLOUS COURT ACTIONS.  (a)
    1-9  The board by rule shall:
   1-10              (1)  prohibit an inmate from signing a pleading in a
   1-11  state or federal court proceeding, other than a criminal
   1-12  proceeding, that is:
   1-13                    (A)  groundless and brought in bad faith;
   1-14                    (B)  groundless and brought for the purpose of
   1-15  harassment; or
   1-16                    (C)  groundless and interposed for any improper
   1-17  purpose, such as to cause unnecessary delay or needless increase in
   1-18  the cost of litigation; and
   1-19              (2)  establish punishments for violations of a rule
   1-20  adopted under this subsection, which may include forfeiture of good
   1-21  conduct time or any other sanction the division is authorized to
   1-22  impose for violation of a rule of the division.
   1-23        (b)  The institutional division may:
   1-24              (1)  hold a hearing to determine whether an inmate has
    2-1  violated a rule adopted under Subsection (a) only after
    2-2  notification from a judge in whose court a proceeding is brought
    2-3  that the inmate engaged in the conduct described by Subsection (a);
    2-4  and
    2-5              (2)  impose a sanction for a violation of the rule only
    2-6  on a determination at a hearing that the inmate engaged in the
    2-7  conduct described by Subsection (a).
    2-8        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
    2-9  applies only to a forfeiture of good conduct time based on the
   2-10  filing in court of a signed pleading on or after that date.
   2-11        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-12  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-13  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-14  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-15  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.