By Hardcastle                                         H.B. No. 1198
         76R5476 GWK-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to work projects on which the labor of inmates confined in
 1-3     county jail may be used.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Article 43.10, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
 1-6     amended to read as follows:
 1-7           Art. 43.10.  MANUAL LABOR.  Where the punishment assessed in
 1-8     a conviction for misdemeanor is confinement in jail for more than
 1-9     one day, or where in such conviction the punishment is assessed
1-10     only at a pecuniary fine and the party so convicted is unable to
1-11     pay the fine and costs adjudged against him, or where the party is
1-12     sentenced to jail for a felony or is confined in jail after
1-13     conviction of a felony, the party convicted shall be required to
1-14     work in the county jail industries program or shall be required to
1-15     do manual labor in accordance with the provisions of this article
1-16     under the following rules and regulations:
1-17                 1.  Each commissioners court may provide for the
1-18     erection of a workhouse and the establishment of a county farm in
1-19     connection therewith for the purpose of utilizing the labor of said
1-20     parties so convicted;
1-21                 2.  Such farms and workhouses shall be under the
1-22     control and management of the sheriff, and the sheriff may adopt
1-23     such rules and regulations not inconsistent with the rules and
1-24     regulations of the Commission on Jail Standards and with the laws
 2-1     as the sheriff deems necessary;
 2-2                 3.  Such overseers and guards may be employed by the
 2-3     sheriff under the authority of the commissioners court as may be
 2-4     necessary to prevent escapes and to enforce such labor, and they
 2-5     shall be paid out of the county treasury such compensation as the
 2-6     commissioners court may prescribe;
 2-7                 4.  They shall be put to labor upon:
 2-8                       (A)  public works and maintenance projects,
 2-9     including public works and maintenance projects for a political
2-10     subdivision located in whole or in part in the county; or
2-11                       (B)  works and maintenance projects for nonprofit
2-12     organizations that provide services to the general public in the
2-13     county and enhance the social welfare and general well-being of the
2-14     residents of the county;
2-15                 5.  One who from age, disease, or other physical or
2-16     mental disability is unable to do manual labor shall not be
2-17     required to work.  His inability to do manual labor may be
2-18     determined by a physician appointed for that purpose by the county
2-19     judge or the commissioners court, who shall be paid for such
2-20     service such compensation as said court may allow; and
2-21                 6.  For each day of manual labor, in addition to any
2-22     other credits allowed by law, a defendant is entitled to have one
2-23     day deducted from each sentence he is serving.  The deduction
2-24     authorized by this article, when combined with the deduction
2-25     required by Article 42.10 of this code, may not exceed two-thirds
2-26     (2/3) of the sentence.
2-27           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
 3-1     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 3-2     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 3-3     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 3-4     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 3-5     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 3-6     passage, and it is so enacted.