SGN C.S.H.B. 3244 75(R)BILL ANALYSIS CORRECTIONS C.S.H.B. 3244 By: Gray 4-16-97 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND In 1995, the 74th Texas Legislature passed legislation which transferred administrative authority for the Treatment Alternative to Incarceration Program (TAIP) from the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (TCADA) to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice-Community Justice Assistance Division. The TAIP program provides screening, assessment, and substance abuse treatment to any person arrested for an offense greater than a Class C misdemeanor involving alcohol or drugs. The program provides judges with a sentencing option in lieu of incarceration for chemically dependent offenders. The program is also an early intervention program for minor offenses related to substance abuse. Current law requires defendants to be assessed rather than evaluated. Assessment is a diagnosis on chemical dependency status and the level of treatment needed. An evaluation to the court reviews not only chemical dependency status, but how a person's criminality influences the appropriate type of treatment. Many certified community supervision officers (CSOs) are not licensed by TCADA to do assessments. They are, however, qualified and required to perform evaluations. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) also administers another substance abuse treatment program for offenders known as the Substance Abuse Felony Punishment (SAFP) program. This program provides nine months of treatment in a therapeutic community environment followed by residential and out-patient treatment upon release. Current law requires the Department to provide not less than 5,200 SAFP beds, however, the Department has received funding for only 4,500 SAFP beds. PURPOSE As proposed, C.S.H.B. 3244 would recodify the TAIP statute from the Code of Criminal Procedure to the Government Code and make the language consistent with the sections of the Code of Criminal Procedure pertaining to presentence investigations and DWI community supervision. These two sections require CSOs to perform substance abuse evaluations--not assessments--of criminal defendants and report the results to the court. C.S.H.B. 3244 would also eliminate the requirement that TDCJ provide at least 5,200 SAFP beds, leaving the size of the SAFP program to be governed by the general appropriations act. 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 Chapter 76, Government Code, by adding Section 76.017 as follows: Sec. 76.017. TREATMENT ALTERNATIVE TO INCARCERATION PROGRAM. (a) Allows the department to establish a treatment alternative to incarceration program in each county served by the department, and to enter into an interlocal cooperation agreement with one or more other departments to establish the program on a regional basis. (b) Provides that the program must: (1) include automatic screening and evaluation of a person arrested for an offense, other than a class C misdemeanor, in which an element of the offense is the use or possession of alcohol or the use, possession or sale of a controlled substance or marihuana; (2) include automatic screening and evaluation of a person arrested for an offense, other than a Class C misdemeanor, in which the use of alcohol or drugs is suspected to have significantly contributed to the offense for which the individual has been arrested; (3) coordinate the evaluation and referral to treatment services; and (4) make referrals for the appropriate treatment of a person determined to be in need of treatment. (c) Provides that a program administered under this section must use a screening and evaluation procedure developed or approved by the division. (d) Requires a representative of the department, after a person is screened and evaluated, to meet with representatives of the participating criminal justice and treatment agencies to review the person's case and determine if the person should be referred for treatment. If a person is considered appropriate for treatment, the person may be referred to community-based treatment or any other treatment program deemed appropriate. Provides that a magistrate may order a person to participate in a treatment program recommended under this section as a condition of bond or condition of pretrial release. (e) Allows a department to contract for the provision of treatment services and may pay for services only if other adequate public or private sources are not available. Provides that a person is responsible for the payment of any treatment program recommended under this section if it is determined that the person is able to pay for the treatment, or if the person has insurance that will pay for the treatment. If a person is able to pay for treatment or if the person has insurance that will pay for the treatment, the payment may be made a condition for receiving treatment. (f) Allows an employee of a department or treatment provider either administering this program or providing services under this section to exchange information regarding the assessment, evaluation, or treatment of a person participating in this program to: another employee of the department; an officer in the court that has jurisdiction over the person's case; a county sheriff or jail administrator; an employee of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice; or any employee in a facility, institution or halfway house in which a person may be confined in accordance with a disposition of the criminal charges in the case. SECTION 2. Amends Section 493.009(g), Government Code, by deleting the requirement that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice provide at least 5,200 beds for the purpose of operating the program under Section 14, Article 42.12, Code of Criminal Procedure. SECTION 3. Amends Section 501.093(f), Government Code, to allow the institutional division to require that inmates selected by the division attend a substance abuse treatment program that includes recognition and awareness of the disease concept of addiction. SECTION 4. Amends Section 501.0931(g), Government Code, to require the institutional division to adopt a procedure for determining which inmates may be required to participate in the program. SECTION 5. Amends Section 509.003, Government Code, by adding Subsection (d) which requires the division to develop a screening and evaluation procedure for use in accordance with Section 76.017. Requires the division to determine if a single screening and evaluation procedure may be used in each program. Provides that if the division determines a single procedure is not feasible, the division is required to identify and approve procedures that may be used. SECTION 6. States that in addition to substantive changes made by this Act, the Act conforms Chapter 76, Government Code, to Section 3.0151, Chapter 321, Acts of the 74th Legislature, Regular Session, 1995; conforms Section 509.003, Government Code, to Section 3.0091, Chapter 321, Acts of the 74th Legislature, Regular Session, 1995; repeals Section 3.0151, Chapter 321, Acts of the 74th Legislature, Regular Session, 1995; and states that this section prevails over another Act of the 75th Legislature, Regular Session, 1997, relating to nonsubstantive additions to and corrections in enacted codes. SECTION 7. Emergency clause. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE The substitute adds language to allow the institutional division to require that inmates selected by the division attend a substance abuse treatment program that includes recognition and awareness of the disease concept of addiction. The substitute also adds a requirement that the institutional division adopt a procedure for determining which inmates may be required to participate in the program. The substitute adds language which requires the community justice assistance division (CJAD) to develop a screening and evaluation procedure for use in accordance with Section 76.017. Requires the CJAD to determine if a single screening and evaluation procedure may be used in each program. Provides that if they determine a single procedure is not feasible, they are required to identify and approve procedures that may be used.