By Hinojosa                                     H.B. No. 1693

      75R6266 GWK-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to authorizing the state jail division of the Texas

 1-3     Department of Criminal Justice to house county jail inmates in a

 1-4     state jail felony facility.

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

 1-6           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 507, Government Code, is

 1-7     amended by adding Section 507.007 to read as follows:

 1-8           Sec. 507.007.  USE OF FACILITY FOR COUNTY JAIL INMATES.

 1-9     (a)  The state jail division, with the approval of the board, may

1-10     designate one or more state jail felony facilities to house county

1-11     jail inmates who do not have a history of violent behavior and who

1-12     have not shown a pattern of violent or assaultive behavior in

1-13     county jail and enter into a contract with the commissioners court

1-14     of a county to house those inmates, but only if:

1-15                 (1)  the designation does not deny placement in a state

1-16     jail felony facility of defendants required to serve terms of

1-17     confinement in a facility following conviction of state jail

1-18     felonies; and

1-19                 (2)  the county jail inmates, to the extent

1-20     practicable, may be segregated from other inmates confined in the

1-21     facility.

1-22           (b)  A county for which the state jail division confines

1-23     county jail inmates under this section may not enter into a

1-24     contract with another county or another state to house inmates from

 2-1     the other county or state in the county jail or any correctional

 2-2     facility operated by or under contract with the county.

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

 2-4     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-5     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-6     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-7     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

 2-8     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

 2-9     passage, and it is so enacted.