LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                          Austin, Texas

                           FISCAL NOTE
                       74th Regular Session

                          April 27, 1995



 TO:     Honorable Allen Place, Chair, Chair    IN RE:  House Bill No. 756
         Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence            By: Rangel
         House of Representatives
         Austin, Texas






FROM: John Keel, Director

In response to your request for a Fiscal Note on House Bill No.
756 (relating to the provision of interpreters, telecommunication
devices, and other services for deaf or hearing-impaired persons
who are arrested or confined) this office has determined the
following:

The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal
basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions
of the bill.

The bill would require the Texas Commission for the Deaf and
Hearing Impaired to establish and maintain a toll-free telephone
number , available 24 hours a day, to assist law enforcement
agencies and courts in locating qualified interpreters.  Law
enforcement agencies would be required to contact the number not
later than one hour after a deaf or hearing impaired person has
been arrested.  A deaf or hearing impaired person being held in
custody would have to be provided access to a telecommunication
device for the deaf equal to the access to a telephone other
arrested persons have while in custody. 

The institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice would be required to provide a deaf or hearing impaired
inmate access to a telecommunication device for the deaf equal to
the telephone access provided other inmates, as well as access to
all services provided other inmates.

The state would incur costs related to the establishment of a 24
hour toll-free information line, purchase and installation of
telecommunications devices for the deaf in prison units, and    




provision of interpreters in prisons.
 
Local units of government would incur costs related to the
purchase and installation of telecommunications devices for the
deaf.

Maintenance of a 24 hour information line through an answering
service would cost approximately $1,800 per year.

The cost of making telecommunications devices for the deaf as
accessible as telephones in prisons and jails would depend on the
number of facilities housing deaf or hearing impaired persons,
and the number of areas in each facility where telephones are
made available.

Installation costs for the institutional division would be $400 -
$500 per facility.  Costs could be minimized if deaf or hearing
impaired inmates could be consolidated on a few units.


The fiscal implication to the State or units of local government
cannot be determined.


Source:   Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Texas Commission
for the
                          Deaf and Hearing Impaired
          LBB Staff: JK, BP, RR