By Giddings                                            H.B. No. 577
         76R2707 KEL-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the period for which a person arrested or held without
 1-3     a warrant in the prevention of family violence may be held after
 1-4     bond is posted.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Article 17.291(b), Code of Criminal Procedure, is
 1-7     amended to read as follows:
 1-8           (b)  Article 17.29, Code of Criminal Procedure, does not
 1-9     apply when a person has been arrested or held without a warrant in
1-10     the prevention of family violence if there is probable cause to
1-11     believe the violence will continue if the person is immediately
1-12     released.  The head of the agency arresting or holding such a
1-13     person may hold the person for a period of not more than four hours
1-14     after bond has been posted.  This period may be extended only if
1-15     authorized in a writing directed to the person having custody of
1-16     the detained person by a magistrate who concludes that the violence
1-17     would continue if the person is released, but in no case may such a
1-18     period of detention exceed 48 [24] hours.
1-19           SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
1-20     to a person whose period of detention begins on or after the
1-21     effective date of this Act.  A person whose period of detention
1-22     begins before the effective date of this Act is covered by the law
1-23     in effect when the period of detention began, and the former law is
1-24     continued in effect for that purpose.
 2-1           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-2           SECTION 4.  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.