By:  West                                              S.B. No. 693
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to prison inmate liability for destruction of property at
    1-2  the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subsections (b), (d), and (e), Section 500.002,
    1-5  Government Code, are amended to read as follows:
    1-6        (b)  The institutional division shall establish a hearing
    1-7  procedure, giving consideration to the due process rights of
    1-8  inmates, for the adjudication of claims for property damage under
    1-9  this section <article>.  Damages may be awarded to the department
   1-10  <institutional division> only after a hearing and may not exceed
   1-11  the value of the property damaged.
   1-12        (d)  An inmate may appeal a final decision <ruling following
   1-13  a hearing> under this section after exhausting administrative
   1-14  remedies by filing a petition seeking judicial review <an appeal>
   1-15  in a district court having jurisdiction in the county in which the
   1-16  alleged damages occurred.  On judicial review <appeal>, the
   1-17  district court shall follow the rules governing judicial review of
   1-18  contested cases under Sections 2001.171 through 2001.178,
   1-19  Government Code <Section 19, Administrative Procedure and Texas
   1-20  Register Act (Article 6252-13a, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes)>.
   1-21  Appeals may be taken from the district court as in other <civil>
   1-22  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 <appealing the
    2-5  decision>.
    2-6        SECTION 2.  If any section, sentence, clause, or part of this
    2-7  Act shall for any reason be held invalid, such invalidity shall not
    2-8  affect the remaining portions of the Act, and it is hereby declared
    2-9  to be the intention of this legislature to have passed each
   2-10  section, sentence, clause, or part irrespective of the fact that
   2-11  any other section, sentence, clause, or part may be declared
   2-12  invalid.
   2-13        SECTION 3.  The changes in law made by this Act apply only to
   2-14  a cause of action that accrues on or after the effective date of
   2-15  this Act.  A cause of action that accrues before the effective date
   2-16  of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the cause
   2-17  of action accrues, and that law is continued in effect for this
   2-18  purpose.
   2-19        SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   2-20        SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-21  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 bills to be read on three several
   2-24  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.