By:  Sims, Shapiro                                     S.B. No. 949
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to authorizing county commissioners to ban the
    1-2  introduction of contraband into county jails; providing a penalty.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 351, Local Government Code,
    1-5  is amended by adding Section 351.045 to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 351.045.  CONTRABAND.  (a)  The commissioners court of a
    1-7  county by order may prohibit the introduction of contraband into
    1-8  the county jail or a county correctional facility.
    1-9        (b)  The commissioners court may designate an item as
   1-10  contraband only if the sheriff agrees in writing to the designation
   1-11  and if the item is:
   1-12              (1)  a tobacco product such as a cigar, cigarette,
   1-13  snuff, or a similar product prepared for smoking, chewing, or
   1-14  dipping or is an accessory to a tobacco product such as matches; or
   1-15              (2)  by its nature a threat to the health or safety of
   1-16  an inmate or an employee of the jail or correctional facility and
   1-17  is not an item listed in Section 38.09 or 38.11, Penal Code.
   1-18        (c)  The sheriff shall post at each entrance to the county
   1-19  jail or county correctional facility a copy of the order listing
   1-20  the items that are contraband and a statement that a person
   1-21  introducing or attempting to introduce a listed item into the jail
   1-22  or facility commits an offense.
   1-23        (d)  A person who introduces or attempts to introduce
   1-24  contraband into a county jail or county correctional facility
    2-1  commits an offense.  An offense under this subsection is a Class C
    2-2  misdemeanor.
    2-3        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-4  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-5  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-6  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-7  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-8  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-9  passage, and it is so enacted.