By Brown                                               S.B. No. 837
       74R5871 PEP-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to television viewing by inmates and defendants in the
    1-3  custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Chapter 493, Government Code, is amended by
    1-6  adding Section 493.015 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 493.015.  USE OF TELEVISION.  The board shall adopt
    1-8  rules to prohibit an inmate or defendant in the custody of the
    1-9  department from viewing television for recreational purposes for
   1-10  any time during the day that is in excess of the time spent by the
   1-11  inmate or defendant that day in viewing television as part of a
   1-12  programmatic activity.
   1-13        SECTION 2.  The Texas Board of Criminal Justice shall adopt
   1-14  the rules required by Section 493.015, Government Code, as added by
   1-15  this Act, not later than January 1, 1996.
   1-16        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-17  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-18  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-19  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-20  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-21  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-22  passage, and it is so enacted.