By Christian                                    H.B. No. 1262

      75R6085 GWK-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to requiring the state to reimburse counties for the costs

 1-3     of confining certain state inmates.

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

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Article 104.002, Code of Criminal Procedure, is

 1-6     amended by adding Subsection (e) to read as follows:

 1-7           (e)  A county that confines in the county jail an inmate who

 1-8     is the subject of a warrant issued under Section 13, Article 42.18,

 1-9     or an inmate who is awaiting transfer to the Texas Department of

1-10     Criminal Justice after a determination by a parole panel or a

1-11     designee of the Board of Pardons and Paroles under Section 14,

1-12     Article 42.18, is entitled to receive compensation from the state

1-13     for each day the inmate is confined in the county jail.  On the

1-14     first day of each quarter of a county's fiscal year, the county

1-15     judge shall certify to the comptroller of public accounts each

1-16     inmate and, for each inmate, the number of days during the

1-17     preceding fiscal quarter for which the county is entitled to

1-18     compensation under this subsection.  The comptroller shall issue to

1-19     the commissioners court of the county a warrant in an amount

1-20     computed for the preceding fiscal quarter by multiplying $35 by the

1-21     total number of days certified by the county judge for all inmates

1-22     or, if the comptroller determines that the total number of days

1-23     certified by the county judge is inaccurate, by the total number of

1-24     days determined by the comptroller to be an accurate statement of

 2-1     days to which the county is entitled to compensation.

 2-2           SECTION 2.   A county is entitled to compensation from the

 2-3     state under Article 104.002(e), Code of Criminal Procedure, as

 2-4     added by this Act, only for the confinement of inmates on or after

 2-5     the effective date of this Act.

 2-6           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-7     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-8     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-9     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-10     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-11     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-12     passage, and it is so enacted.