SGN C.S.H.B. 818 75(R)BILL ANALYSIS CORRECTIONS C.S.H.B. 818 By: Cuellar 4-2-97 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND Two divisions of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the Community Justice Assistance Division (CJAD) and the Parole Division (PD) are involved in the daily supervision of offenders who are released from prison or given probation instead of a prison sentence. CJAD distributes state funds to local probation departments to supervise persons under probation. While the Parole Division supervises offenders who have been released on parole or mandatory supervision. According to current Texas law, an offender can be required to report to both a parole officer and a probation officer on a regular basis. This is known as "dual supervision." Dual supervision occurs when a parolee is convicted of a new offense and is placed on probation, usually because the judge is unaware of the offender's parole status. Some basic information regarding dual supervision, such as how many offenders are under dual supervision, their location, and the length of time under dual supervision is unknown. There are other questions relating to the efficiency, effectiveness and public safety of eliminating dual supervision that should be carefully considered. PURPOSE C.S.H.B. 818 proposes to require the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, using the community supervision tracking system, to perform a study to provide data on the incidence, duration and geographic distribution of dual supervision cases to the next session of the Legislature. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1: Amends Article 42.18, Code of Criminal Procedure, by adding Section 30 to read as follows: Sec. 30. DUAL SUPERVISION. a) Requires the department, using data included in the community supervision tracking system and other information, to determine the number of persons who at any time between September 1, 1997 and August 31, 1998 are under the supervision of both the division and a community supervision and corrections department (CSCD). b) Requires the department to determine the number of persons described by Subsection (a) who are supervised by a CSCD following a grant of deferred adjudication for a misdemeanor or a conviction of a misdemeanor; and the number of persons described by Subsection (a) who are supervised by a CSCD following a grant of deferred adjudication for a felony or a conviction of a felony. (c) Provides that for each person determined to be under dual supervision, the department is required to determine the duration of the period of supervision by the division to which the person is subject; the duration of the period of supervision by the CSCD to which the person is subject; and the duration of the period of dual supervision to which the person is subject. (d) Requires the department to also determine the geographic distribution of incidents of dual supervision, including determining whether a difference in the number of incidents of dual supervision may be attributable to whether the person supervised resides in an urban area or a rural area and determining whether certain counties have a disproportionate percentage of incidents of dual supervision. (e) Requires the department to report its findings to the legislature and the Sunset Advisory Commission by December 1, 1998. (f) Provides that this section expires January 1, 1999. SECTION 2: Emergency clause. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE The substitute requires the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, using data included in the community supervision tracking system, to study the incidence, duration and geographic distribution of dual supervision cases. Provides that this study be reported to the legislature and the Sunset Advisory Commission by December 1, 1998. The original bill eliminated dual supervision by requiring community supervision and corrections departments to perform all supervisory duties related to persons who are supervised by the parole division of TDCJ and then subsequently placed on community supervision by a court. The original bill required the parole division to resume supervision of persons whose community supervision term is completed, unless the period of supervision on parole or mandatory supervision has also been completed or the person is ordered confined due to revocation processes.