1-1     By:  Place (Senate Sponsor - West)                    H.B. No. 2826

 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 21, 1997;

 1-3     April 23, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on

 1-4     Criminal Justice; April 30, 1997, reported favorably by the

 1-5     following vote:  Yeas 6, Nays 0; April 30, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to the qualifications required for appointment as a

 1-9     community supervision and corrections department officer.

1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 76.005(b), Government Code, is amended to

1-12     read as follows:

1-13           (b)  To be eligible for appointment as an officer who

1-14     supervises defendants placed on community supervision a person[:]

1-15                 [(1)]  must have acquired a bachelor's degree conferred

1-16     by an institution of higher education accredited by an accrediting

1-17     organization recognized by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating

1-18     Board[; and]

1-19                 [(2)  unless the bachelor's degree is in criminology,

1-20     corrections, counseling, law, social work, psychology, sociology,

1-21     or a related field that has been approved by the division, must

1-22     have:]

1-23                       [(A)  one year of graduate study in one of those

1-24     fields; or]

1-25                       [(B)  one year of experience in full-time

1-26     casework, counseling, or community or group work that has been

1-27     approved by the division].

1-28           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-29     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-30     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-31     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-32     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-33     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-34     passage, and it is so enacted.

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