1-1 By: Wentworth S.B. No. 932
1-2 (In the Senate - Filed March 6, 1995; March 7, 1995, read
1-3 first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
1-4 May 11, 1995, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 4,
1-5 Nays 1; May 11, 1995, sent to printer.)
1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-7 AN ACT
1-8 relating to the availability of weight-lifting equipment to inmates
1-9 and defendants confined in a correctional facility.
1-10 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11 SECTION 1. Chapter 493, Government Code, is amended by
1-12 adding Section 493.014 to read as follows:
1-13 Sec. 493.014. WEIGHT-LIFTING EQUIPMENT. (a) The
1-14 department:
1-15 (1) may not allow an inmate or a defendant confined in
1-16 a facility operated by the department access to weight-lifting
1-17 equipment or accessories; and
1-18 (2) shall inform each entity contracting with the
1-19 department for the operation or management of a facility that
1-20 inmates confined in the facility are not permitted to have access
1-21 to weight-lifting equipment or accessories.
1-22 (b) The department shall notify the General Services
1-23 Commission that all weight-lifting equipment and accessories owned
1-24 by the department are surplus property to be disposed of as
1-25 provided by Article 9, State Purchasing and General Services Act
1-26 (Article 601b, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), except that proceeds
1-27 received from disposition of the equipment and accessories under
1-28 this section may be used only to pay costs incurred by the
1-29 department in providing other recreational facilities and equipment
1-30 to inmates and defendants in the custody of the department.
1-31 SECTION 2. Subchapter C, Chapter 351, Local Government Code,
1-32 is amended by adding Section 351.045 to read as follows:
1-33 Sec. 351.045. WEIGHT-LIFTING EQUIPMENT. The sheriff or jail
1-34 administrator, as appropriate, may not allow a prisoner committed
1-35 to the county jail access to weight-lifting equipment or
1-36 accessories.
1-37 SECTION 3. Subchapter F, Chapter 351, Local Government Code,
1-38 is amended by adding Section 351.105 to read as follows:
1-39 Sec. 351.105. WEIGHT-LIFTING EQUIPMENT. The sheriff may
1-40 approve a contract to operate a facility under Section 351.101 or
1-41 Section 351.102 only if the contract provides that the private
1-42 vendor may not allow a prisoner confined in the facility access to
1-43 weight-lifting equipment or accessories.
1-44 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
1-45 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-46 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-47 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-48 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-49 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-50 passage, and it is so enacted.
1-51 * * * * *