1-1  By:  West                                              S.B. No. 693
    1-2        (In the Senate - Filed February 21, 1995; February 22, 1995,
    1-3  read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
    1-4  March 21, 1995, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 6,
    1-5  Nays 0; March 21, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to prison inmate liability for destruction of property at
    1-9  the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
   1-10        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-11        SECTION 1.  Subsections (b), (d), and (e), Section 500.002,
   1-12  Government Code, are amended to read as follows:
   1-13        (b)  The institutional division shall establish a hearing
   1-14  procedure, giving consideration to the due process rights of
   1-15  inmates, for the adjudication of claims for property damage under
   1-16  this section <article>.  Damages may be awarded to the department
   1-17  <institutional division> only after a hearing and may not exceed
   1-18  the value of the property damaged.
   1-19        (d)  An inmate may appeal a final decision <ruling following
   1-20  a hearing> under this section after exhausting administrative
   1-21  remedies by filing a petition seeking judicial review <an appeal>
   1-22  in a district court having jurisdiction in the county in which the
   1-23  alleged damages occurred.  On judicial review <appeal>, the
   1-24  district court shall follow the rules governing judicial review of
   1-25  contested cases under Sections 2001.171 through 2001.178,
   1-26  Government Code <Section 19, Administrative Procedure and Texas
   1-27  Register Act (Article 6252-13a, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes)>.
   1-28  Appeals may be taken from the district court as in other <civil>
   1-29  cases.
   1-30        (e)  If an inmate fails to file a petition seeking judicial
   1-31  review of <appeal> an adverse decision within 60 days after
   1-32  exhausting all administrative remedies available to challenge a
   1-33  final decision <the date of a hearing under Subsection (b)>, the
   1-34  inmate is jurisdictionally barred from proceeding <appealing the
   1-35  decision>.
   1-36        SECTION 2.  If any section, sentence, clause, or part of this
   1-37  Act shall for any reason be held invalid, such invalidity shall not
   1-38  affect the remaining portions of the Act, and it is hereby declared
   1-39  to be the intention of this legislature to have passed each
   1-40  section, sentence, clause, or part irrespective of the fact that
   1-41  any other section, sentence, clause, or part may be declared
   1-42  invalid.
   1-43        SECTION 3.  The changes in law made by this Act apply only to
   1-44  a cause of action that accrues on or after the effective date of
   1-45  this Act.  A cause of action that accrues before the effective date
   1-46  of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the cause
   1-47  of action accrues, and that law is continued in effect for this
   1-48  purpose.
   1-49        SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   1-50        SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-51  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-52  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-53  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-54  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
   1-55                               * * * * *