By West, et al.                                        H.B. No. 405

         75R13988 PEP-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to restricting certain recreational amenities available to

 1-3     inmates imprisoned in the institutional division of the Texas

 1-4     Department of Criminal Justice.

 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-6           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 501, Government Code, is

 1-7     amended by adding Section 501.018 to read as follows:

 1-8           Sec. 501.018.  RECREATIONAL AMENITIES.  (a)  The

 1-9     institutional division may not allow an inmate classified as

1-10     subject to close custody or administrative segregation, other than

1-11     an inmate classified as subject to administrative segregation level

1-12     I protective custody, access to:

1-13                 (1)  weight-lifting equipment or accessories other than

1-14     in connection with physician-recommended physical therapy; or

1-15                 (2)  use of a television or radio other than in

1-16     connection with a programmatic activity, such as a work,

1-17     educational, or vocational activity.

1-18           (b)  The department may use money appropriated from the

1-19     general revenue fund to pay the cost of purchasing or maintaining

1-20     recreational equipment to be used by an inmate confined in the

1-21     institutional division only if:

1-22                 (1)  the money is appropriated out of receipts

1-23     deposited to the general revenue fund from the education and

1-24     recreation fund; or

 2-1                 (2)  the equipment is used exclusively in connection

 2-2     with physician-recommended physical therapy or a programmatic

 2-3     activity such as a work, educational, or vocational activity.

 2-4           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

 2-5           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-6     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-7     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-8     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-9     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.