By West, et al.                                        H.B. No. 279

         Substitute the following for H.B. No. 279:

         By Allen                                           C.S.H.B. No. 279

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to a requirement that inmates of the Texas Department of

 1-3     Criminal Justice participate in work and educational programs.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 497.090, Government Code, is amended to

 1-6     read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 497.090.  WORK AND EDUCATION REQUIRED.  (a)  The

 1-8     department shall require each inmate to work in an agricultural,

 1-9     industrial, or other work program, to the extent that the inmate is

1-10     physically and mentally capable of working.  The department may

1-11     waive the requirement to work, if necessary to maintain security.

1-12           (b)  The department shall require an inmate who does not have

1-13     a high school diploma or general equivalency diploma to participate

1-14     in available educational programming designed to help the inmate to

1-15     earn a general equivalency diploma.  This requirement does not

1-16     apply to an inmate confined in administrative segregation or close

1-17     custody.  The department may waive the requirement upon a

1-18     determination that the inmate lacks the learning ability to earn a

1-19     diploma.  The department may limit participation in an educational

1-20     program based on the capacity of the program, and may assign

1-21     inmates to participate based upon the proximity of release dates,

1-22     using the department's individualized treatment plan.

1-23           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-1     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-2     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-3     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

 2-4     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

 2-5     passage, and it is so enacted.