SGN C.S.H.B. 917 75(R)BILL ANALYSIS CORRECTIONS C.S.H.B. 917 By: Jones, Jesse 4-9-97 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND Convicts located at the Wynne Unit at Huntsville are contracted to perform data-entry work for various business and governmental entities. However, depending on the type of contract, the inmate may have access to information on persons that is considered personal and sensitive. The public has raised concerns regarding confined inmates access to such information. PURPOSE C.S.H.B. 917 would prohibit the Texas Department of Criminal Justice from entering into a contract with a private business or public entity that allow inmates, serving a sentence for an offense for which the defendant is required to register as a sex offender, access to personal information about persons who are not confined. If the TDCJ enters into this type of contract, the department is required to search the inmates as they enter and leave the work area. 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 Subchapter A, Chapter 497, Government Code, by adding Section 497.011 as follows: Sec. 497.011. CERTAIN CONTRACTS PROHIBITED; SEARCHES. (a) Prohibits the Texas Department of Criminal Justice from entering into a contract with a private business or public entity that requires or permits an inmate confined in a correctional facility operated by or for the department who is serving a sentence for a registrable sex offense, to have access to personal information about persons who are not confined in facilities operated by or for the department. (b) Provides that if the department enters into a contract that requires or permits an inmate to have access to personal information about persons not confined in facilities operated by or for the department, the department is required, on each occasion in which the inmate enters or leaves the work area, to require the inmate to submit to a personal search by department personnel. SECTION 2. Effective date: September 1, 1997. SECTION 3. Emergency clause. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE The original bill prohibited the TDCJ from entering into any contract that required or permitted an inmate access to personal information about free-world persons. The substitute allows the department to enter into this type of contract, but prohibits inmates serving sentences for registrable sex offenses from working on these contracts. The substitute also provides that if the department enters into contracts that require or permit an inmate access to personal information about free-world persons, the department is required to search the inmates as they enter or leave the work area.