By Sims                                                S.B. No. 949
       74R7364 GWK-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to authorizing county commissioners to ban the
    1-3  introduction of contraband into county jails.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 351, Local Government Code,
    1-6  is amended by adding Section 351.045 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 351.045.  CONTRABAND.  (a)  The commissioners court of a
    1-8  county by order may prohibit the introduction of contraband into
    1-9  the county jail or a county correctional facility.
   1-10        (b)  The commissioners court may designate an item as
   1-11  contraband only if the sheriff agrees in writing to the designation
   1-12  and if the item is:
   1-13              (1)  a tobacco product such as a cigar, cigarette,
   1-14  snuff, or a similar product prepared for smoking, chewing, or
   1-15  dipping or is an accessory to a tobacco product such as matches; or
   1-16              (2)  by its nature a threat to the health or safety of
   1-17  an inmate or an employee of the jail or correctional facility and
   1-18  is not an item listed in Section 38.09 or 38.11, Penal Code.
   1-19        (c)  The sheriff shall post at each entrance to the county
   1-20  jail or county correctional facility a copy of the order listing
   1-21  the items that are contraband and a statement that a person
   1-22  introducing or attempting to introduce a listed item into the jail
   1-23  or facility commits an offense.
   1-24        (d)  A person who introduces or attempts to introduce
    2-1  contraband into a county jail or county correctional facility
    2-2  commits an offense.  An offense under this subsection is a Class C
    2-3  misdemeanor.
    2-4        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-5  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-6  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-7  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-8  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-9  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-10  passage, and it is so enacted.