1-1 By: Whitmire S.B. No. 1610
1-2 (In the Senate - Filed March 14, 1997; March 24, 1997, read
1-3 first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
1-4 April 18, 1997, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 7,
1-5 Nays 0; April 18, 1997, sent to printer.)
1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-7 AN ACT
1-8 relating to the county jail work release program and to
1-9 participation by certain inmates of the Texas Department of
1-10 Criminal Justice, with the approval of a sheriff, in that program.
1-11 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12 SECTION 1. Chapter 499, Government Code, is amended by
1-13 adding Subchapter H to read as follows:
1-14 SUBCHAPTER H. TRANSFER TO COUNTY JAIL WORK RELEASE PROGRAM
1-15 Sec. 499.181. INMATES ELIGIBLE FOR TRANSFER. (a) An inmate
1-16 is eligible for transfer under this section if the inmate is
1-17 confined in a facility operated by or under contract with the
1-18 department and has achieved or is within one year of achieving the
1-19 inmate's presumptive parole date or mandatory supervision release
1-20 date.
1-21 (b) The department may transfer an eligible inmate to a
1-22 county jail for participation in the county jail work release
1-23 program if the sheriff approves the transfer of the inmate.
1-24 SECTION 2. Subsections (a) and (b), Section 1, Article
1-25 42.031, Code of Criminal Procedure, are amended to read as follows:
1-26 (a) The sheriff of each county may attempt to secure
1-27 employment for each defendant sentenced to the county jail work
1-28 release program under Article 42.034 of this code, [and] each
1-29 defendant confined in the county jail awaiting transfer to the
1-30 institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,
1-31 and each defendant transferred to the county jail work release
1-32 program from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice under Section
1-33 499.181, Government Code.
1-34 (b) The employer of a defendant participating in a program
1-35 under this article shall pay the defendant's salary to the sheriff.
1-36 The sheriff shall deposit the salary into a special fund to be
1-37 given to the defendant on his release after deducting:
1-38 (1) the cost to the county for the defendant's
1-39 confinement during the pay period based on the average daily cost
1-40 of confining defendants in the county jail, as determined by the
1-41 commissioners court of the county;
1-42 (2) support of the defendant's dependents; [and]
1-43 (3) restitution to the victims of an offense committed
1-44 by the defendant; and
1-45 (4) the cost of medical treatment incurred while
1-46 confined in the jail.
1-47 SECTION 3. Subsection (b), Section 3, Article 42.031, Code
1-48 of Criminal Procedure, is amended to read as follows:
1-49 (b) If the sheriff determines that the defendant is
1-50 conducting himself in a manner that is dangerous to inmates in the
1-51 county jail or to society as a whole, the sheriff may remove the
1-52 defendant from participation in the program pending a hearing
1-53 before the sentencing court unless the defendant was transferred
1-54 under Section 499.181, Government Code, in which event the sheriff
1-55 may return the defendant to the custody of the Texas Department of
1-56 Criminal Justice. At the hearing, if the court determines that the
1-57 sheriff's assessment of the defendant's conduct is correct, the
1-58 court may terminate the defendant's participation in the program
1-59 and order the defendant to the term of imprisonment that the
1-60 defendant would have received had he not entered the program. If
1-61 the court determines that the sheriff's assessment is incorrect,
1-62 the court shall order the sheriff to readmit the defendant to the
1-63 program. A defendant shall receive as credit toward his sentence
1-64 any time served as a participant in the program.
2-1 SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.
2-2 SECTION 5. The importance of this legislation and the
2-3 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-4 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-5 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-6 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
2-7 * * * * *